The number of coronavirus tests per day will quadruple over the next few weeks in the Netherlands, from the current average of 4000 a day to 17500, according to Minister for Health, Hugo de Jonge, RTL Nieuws reports.
The majority of these tests will be aimed at people who are working in healthcare. At the moment, it is only those who work in hospitals who are tested when they show symptoms of coronavirus. For everyone else in the population, the recommendations remain the same: if you or a member of your household has a fever, you should all be in quarantine until 24 hours after everyone has stopped showing symptoms. If you have cold symptoms or a cough, you should stay inside yourself.
Who will get tested?
The extra tests will be rolled out in the following manner. First of all, the frequency of testing for people who work in hospitals will be increased. Then, testing will be expanded to other healthcare workers, such as those who work in nursing homes, who show symptoms of coronavirus- this will happen from next week onwards.
Tests will eventually be expanded to the general public, minister hopes
Finally, there is the eventual hope that testing will be expanded to the general population, but this is likely a while away yet. But Minister de Jonge does recognise that it is important to reach this level of testing capacity eventually, given that testing swathes of the population has proved highly effective in other countries. It is hoped that testing can eventually expand to 29,000 people per day.
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