Massive demand for Covid tests; Health service lines overloaded

The demand for Covid-19 tests is sky-high in the Netherlands at the moment. Health service GGD asked people on Twitter to rather use the online portal to book a test or check results, as their phone lines are overloaded. Various drug stores are also running out of self-tests, NOS reports.

Over 100,000 test appointments were made on Monday, and more than 77,000 people were tested for Covid-19. Another 75,000 appointments were scheduled for Tuesday, and the GGD is making 200 to 300 new appointments per minute, the health service said to the broadcaster. 

Last week, the number of test appointments also increased every day in a row to a total of about 405.000 tests done last week. The week before, 280,000 people got tested for the coronavirus.

"The explosive increase exceeds all expectations, and the GGDs are pulling out all the stops to meet the enormous test demand. We are currently seeing a movement in the total tests done similar to the peaks in December 2020 and February/March 2021," the GGD said. "We expect that we haven't reached the peak yet, and we are deploying all our capacity to meet the rising demand."

The phone lines are getting overloaded at peak moments. According to NOS, there have been times that no test spot was available on the online portal - coronatest.nl - either. In both cases, the GGD advises waiting a while and trying again later.

Drug stores also see self-tests fly off the shelves. The self-tests are currently not available online at Kruidvat, Trekpleister, Etos, and supermarket chain Jumbo. 

A spokesperson for Kruidvat told NOS that it is still on top of the demand. "In individual stores, the shelves may become empty, but we have enough stock in the distribution centers." The self-tests will also be available online again soon, the spokesperson said.