The GGD still runs into the maximum number of 150,000 corona tests per day almost daily. Commercial test companies are now stepping in again, the quarrel between them and the GGD has been settled.
According to the RIVM, the top of the omikrone peak seems to be in sight, but the test streets of the GGD are still busy. On Monday, 162,899 corona tests were taken, on Tuesday there were 140,966. When the GGD one day reaches its maximum capacity of 150,000 tests, people are given the opportunity to make an appointment (also free of charge) at a commercial testing company.
Last week, a total of 983,711 people made a test appointment at the GGD, with which 94 percent of the total capacity was used. It was just under a week earlier, when that number was over a million. ,,We see that the test question fluctuates throughout the week. It is too early for us to draw conclusions before this week,” said a spokesperson for the GGD GHOR.
Row
At the end of January, a quarrel arose between the GGD and the commercial test companies that would step in if the GGD could no longer handle the demand. According to those companies, the GGD was at its maximum, but the organization hardly sent people on. People who wanted to schedule a test online via coronatest.nl were sometimes only shown available GGD places after two days and not the option to choose an earlier appointment at a commercial test street. A number of those companies subsequently withdrew their cooperation. “We hardly get bookings, but we do have to pay the bills,” said Jeroen de Jong of Emergency Testcorona at the time. The companies are paid per test taken.
quick tests
An agreement has now been made that every Dutch person who cannot make an appointment with the GGD on the day itself will also be given the option to make an appointment with a commercial company, says De Jong. These companies use rapid tests, the GGD uses PCR tests. The latter are considered more reliable, but the results are taking longer. “People always have the choice to try again at the GGD,” said the spokesperson.
Making appointments and possibly forwarding them to other companies is done on the basis of the zip code that the person who wants to be tested enters. Last week, 17,331 tests were taken by companies other than the GGD.
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