Stricter surveillance is needed for commercial coronavirus test providers, advisors say

The Cabinet needs to place more attention on how commercial coronavirus test providers handle the data of their clients, a commission advised the Ministry of Health. Some test pest providers keep the negative test results of patients longer than the permitted four weeks, the commission said.

There also needs to be more checks that testing providers do not misuse DNA, tissue, or other substances from their clients. “Such practices undermine the already fragile support for testing in the fight against Covid-19”, the commission stated.

The risk that commercial testing providers violate their clients' privacy increased due to the “sprawl” of testing providers, according to the advisors. The Ministry of Health needs to actively detect misuse of coronavirus tests, the advice stated.

Additionally, the CoronaCheck app needs to be improved. Mistakes were still found on the app and it has been susceptible to fraudulent practices, such as faking coronavirus test results.

This is not only the fault of the app itself but also comes from the inconsistency in checking if people indeed have a valid QR code. When nightlife briefly reopened with access testing, coronavirus infections shot up, partly due to weak enforcement of the QR code check.

In Enschede, at least 180 people tested positive for the coronavirus after visiting a nightclub at the end of June. The mayor of the town believed that the misuse of the access testing QR codes was responsible for the spread.

Adjustments have since been made in the app to prevent fraudulent practices, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said during the press conference on Friday.