Sudden increase in requests for Covid-19 tests

Over the past days, the number of Netherlands residents asking to be tested for the coronavirus increased surprisingly fast. On Thursday the central hotline for requesting a Covid-19 test saw calls increase by 40 percent, and on Sunday by 74 percent, the Volkskrant reports.

"In recent weeks, people who called could often go to one of the test locations on the same day or at most a day later," a spokesperson for GGD GHOR Nederland, the umbrella organization for the GGD health services, said to the Volkskrant. "But now the number of applications is increasing so fast that in some locations they can only be helped two days after their application. Friday we were already making appointments for Sunday. We are therefore already starting to refer people to a test street outside their region if they want to be helped the same day."

The health services could give the newspaper no clear explanation for the sudden increase. Last week Wednesday, public health institute RIVM released the results of a survey showing that only 12 percent went to get tested when they started showing symptoms of Covid-19. "There may be a link between the results of the study and the increase in the number of test requests," the GGD GHOR spokesperson said. "But we can't prove that."

The number of positive Covid-19 tests increased more over the past few days than in recent weeks, according to the newspaper. On Saturday the number of confirmed coronavirus infections increased by 127 and on Sunday by 144 - numbers that have not been seen since mid-June. This increase can at least partly be explained by the sudden increase in tests.