Covid-19 testing down nearly 10 percent as new infections surge

Amid spiking infection figures, the number of people who went to a municipal health service for coronavirus testing decreased in the past week. Between Monday, July 27 and Sunday, August 2, nearly 102 thousand people were tested at a GGD site - a drop of 9 percent compared to the week before, umbrella organization GGD GHOR Nederland confirmed to ANP.

Despite the falling test figures, preliminary data showed that the number of new Covid-19 positive test results rose about 76 percent last week, the fourth consecutive weekly increase. A portion of those new positive tests may be from tests conducted in earlier weeks with more information about the preliminary data expected to be released by public health agency RIVM on Tuesday.

GGD GHOR couldn't say why testing started to drop back down in recent days, and considered any speculation as to the cause to be no more accurate than reading tea leaves. "We saw the number of people tested increase last month, to our satisfaction. But now the demand is decreasing again and that is not the intention," a spokesperson for the organization representing all municipal health services said.

"If people are doubting accessibility or availability, we'd like to take those doubts away. Our message is, 'Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming,'" a spokesperson said to the news wire.