Covid test line workers facing increasing aggression, intimidation

GGD employees who work on the help line where Netherlands residents can book a coronavirus test, are facing increasing aggression and intimidation from callers, a spokesperson for the health services' umbrella organization GGD GHOR Nederland confirmed to ANP after reports in the Telegraaf. "One in five to one in six conversations is grim," the spokesperson said to the news wire.

GGD GHOR attributes the increasing aggression to the lack of testing capacity. "In recent weeks, demand has exceeded supply. People have to wait for longer. That is of course annoying for the person in question. But of course the GGD employee cannot do anything about that."

On television program Jinek on Monday, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge called this verbal abuse of GGD employees "very bad". The Minister himself has also been the target of insults and threats, he said, with people calling him a "mass murderer" and a "vaccinazi".