Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Two people enter the Schiphol Covid-19 vaccination center run by GGD Kennemerland in Badhoevedorp. 1 June 2021
Two people enter the Schiphol Covid-19 vaccination center run by GGD Kennemerland in Badhoevedorp. 1 June 2021 - Credit: NL Times / NL Times - License: All Rights Reserved
Health
Coronavirus
Omicron variant
mandatory testing
Outbreak Management Team
variant of concern
Tuesday, 7 December 2021 - 11:20
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Mandatory testing for travelers from countries with worrying Covid variant: Outbreak Team

Update 11:40 a.m. - More information added in the second and fourth paragraph

The Cabinet should investigate whether it can impose a test obligation on travelers from countries where a worrying variant of the coronavirus is circulating. That is the advice of the Outbreak Management Team.

If more tests are done on people returning from countries with a Variant of Concern (VOC), more infections can be detected. It also benefits research into the new Omicron variant, the OMT said. That is "of great importance for national and international combat."

Travelers from countries with a VOC are already advised to get tested on arrival at Schiphol, but according to the OMT, "there are concerns about the degree of follow-up" of that advice. "Persons who are not interested in a test can reject it and continue traveling in the Netherlands without getting tested."

The Cabinet indicated last week that mandatory testing upon arrival cannot be imposed structurally at the moment. Doing so will require a legislative amendment. The Ministry of Public Health said it is still considering mandatory testing upon arrival.

Several African countries are already subject to a double test requirement before departure due to the emergence of the Omicron variant. These are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Nambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

Reporting by ANP

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • PvdA and GroenLinks in Brabant: only together in provincial government
  • Human trafficking near asylum seekers’ center in Gilze systematically not picked up
  • 20-year-old driver from Utrecht dies in car accident on A6
  • OM defends preventive arrests for demonstration on A12
  • Schiphol holds job fair, more than 1300 visitors expected
  • Millions of passport photos of innocent foreigners in police face database

Top stories

  • Hoekstra wants to reintroduce conscription
  • EU countries agree on new price cap for Russian oil
  • Hermitage shows Rembrandt and contemporaries from The Leiden Collection
  • Dutch police take down Exclu encrypted chat service with 42 arrests, €4 million seized
  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays
  • Matching medicine dosage to patient's DNA can cut side effects 30%: LUMC

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content