Health service employee fired for telling patients to ignore quarantine rules

An employee of municipal health service GGD Twente was fired with immediate effect because she advised a family from Rijssen to ignore the quarantine rules after a member of the family tested positive for Covid-19, RTV Oost reports.

The coronavirus rules state that if someone tests positive for Covid-19, the rest of the household must also be quarantined. Close contacts also have to self-isolate.

The phone call in which the employee advised the family to ignore the rules was recorded. "They can't check it anyway. Just say that you're all inside. But don't really talk to anyone about it, because it's my dismissal," the fired GGD worker said, according to RTV Oost who has a copy of the recording.

GGD Twente distanced itself from the former employee's statements. "What happened cannot be allowed," a spokesperson for the health service said to the broadcaster. According to her, this incident detracts from the work of dozens of employees who work hard on source and contact tracing every day.