Technical glitch delayed Covid-19 test results; GGD apologizes

A technical issue resulted in around 7,300 people having to wait longer than 48 hours for their Covid-19 test results this week, GGD GHOR, the umbrella organization for the GGD health services, said on Wednesday. The service stressed that all delayed results were tests that came back negative. 

"GGD GHOR Nederland deeply regrets that these people spent longer than desired in uncertainty about whether they had been infected with the coronavirus," the organization said on its website. 

According to GGD GHOR, the issue was in the exchange of information between the system in which the results are recorded, and the system of the national GGD hotline through which test appointments are made. As a result, the hotline - which is responsible both for making appointments for tests and calling patients with their results - could not see some of the people who should have been called. 

The glitch was discovered on Monday, end of day. The cause is under investigation. "A temporary solution has already been created so that this problem no longer occurs." GGD GHOR stressed that the issue did not affect the speed with which positive test results were shared with the involved patients.