Netherlands asks German labs to help with Covid-19 tests

Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health is in talks with German laboratories to see if they can help process Dutch Covid-19 tests, so that health service GGD can expand its testing capacity. "The demand is much greater than we thought," De Jonge said to NOS.

The Ministry expected that around 30 thousand coronavirus tests will have to be done per day in September, but it turned out that some 40 thousand tests per day are already needed.

Earlier this week, De Jonge ordered the GGDs to stop expanding their testing due to a capacity issue at the laboratories that process the tests. The laboratories for medical microbiology said on Thursday that they are not being supplied with enough materials to meet the growing demand or coronavirus tests.

Non-medical laboratories in the Netherlands said that they have been offering to help since March and don't understand why the government isn't taking them up on the offer.

The Minister also said he is looking into other testing methods, but they must first be validated and that can take a while.