Dutch cabinet advised to get tested for Covid

The members of the departing Dutch cabinet were advised to get tested for the coronavirus after State Secretary Mona Keijzer of Economic Affairs tested positive for Covid-19, Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health said on Monday. The ministers do not have to quarantine, he said, ANP reports.

Keijzer attended the weekly Council of Ministers meeting on Friday, but she was not at the coronavirus meeting at Prime Minister Mark Rutte's residence in The Hague, the Catshuis, on Sunday. She tested positive for the virus on Monday and is quarantining at home.

Public health institute RIVM has three protocols for what to do when someone in your environment tested positive for the coronavirus, depending on how close your contact was. "If you are in the same room, it counts as a category 3 contact: other contacts," De Jonge said. "Then you have to keep an eye on yourself. Then you don't have to quarantine, but you have to keep an eye on your symptoms. The advice is to test on day five after the risky contact. That would be Wednesday, so that is the advice to colleagues."

It is possible that some of the ministers will be told to quarantine, for example if they spent more than 15 minutes in close contact - less than 1.5 meters apart - with Keijzer during the time that she may have been contagious, De Jonge added. If that is the case, they will be notified by a GGD employee or via the CoronaMelder app.

De Jonge himself will likely not have to be tested. He was quarantining at home when the Council of Ministers meeting happened on Friday and tested negative for the coronavirus on Saturday.