Gov't to use proof of Covid test results to accelerate lockdown relaxation: Report

The Ministry of Public Health is working on a coronavirus test certificate to accelerate the relaxation of lockdown measures. The idea is that people who can prove they recently tested negative for the virus, can be given more freedom to go back to the office or visit a restaurant or theater, for example, chairman Ingrid Thijssen of employers' organization VNO-NCW said to the Telegraaf.

"The Ministry is now working on this and the prognosis is that it will be ready in the second half of March," Thijssen said. According to her, the Ministry is working on expanding rapid testing capacity, so that 400 thousand tests per day can be done on people without coronavirus symptoms by the end of April. 

The cabinet will soon consider this plan, Thijssen said. "It is now up to the cabinet to include that in the road map so that more can be done sooner."

"The idea is that with a negative result you can do things again for 48 hours. It is a double-edged sword. It may go against people's intuition. But it is precisely by opening the economy again with testing that you can do something positive for the development of the pandemic," she said to the newspaper.

Minister Bas van 't Wout of Economic Affairs told the newspaper that the cabinet is seriously looking at what more can be done with testing. "I hope we can clarify that soon," he said.