Dutch businesses increasingly turning to commercial Covid tests

At least a thousand companies in the Netherlands have had enough of long waiting times at the GGD Covid-19 test centers and have turned to commercial parties to set up their own centers to test their employees for the virus, BNR reports after speaking to business associations and commercial test providers.

If you get tested for the coronavirus at a GGD test center, you often have to wait up to 48 hours for your results. In that time, employees can't go to work and have to quarantine at home, in case they have the coronavirus. This costs employers a lot in absenteeism.

As a result, around 50 companies in Deventer, some 500 in Nijmegen, 200 in Oldenzaal, and 250 in Uden, among others, are opening their own test locations, according to BNR.

CoronaLab, one of the two largest commercial test providers in the Netherlands, told the broadcaster that it is helping several hundred companies open their own test locations. Adaptics, the commercial test provider helping companies in Nijmegen, expects more companies to join this trend.