Since mid-July, the number of tests checked by Wintermans has doubled from three hundred to six hundred a day. That did not lead to any problems, because in 95 percent of cases Wintermans still manages to pass the results on to the GGD within seven hours. But gradually the test kits are becoming scarce. These are distributed every month after negotiations among the Dutch laboratories. And Wintermans wants to bring in more test kits at the next distribution. “Of course I have a buffer, but I am now interning. They really have to increase my stocks later.”
A day busy
As soon as the Wintermans department communicates the results, the GGD will start working on this and inform the people who have been tested of the result. If the test is negative, that work is completed quickly. But if it turns out that a person has been tested positive, and is therefore infected with the coronavirus, an employee of the GGD will spend a day on this.
During that time, the contacts of the infected person are identified and measures are taken, the so-called source and contact investigation. In the recent local outbreak in the municipality of Goes, the GGD Zeeland received help from employees from the rest of the country.
The GGD and the Zeeland Safety Region want more tests to be conducted to map out sources of fire faster. That is why the test capacity in Zeeland will be expanded further in the near future, to 1,500 tests per day. An extra test street has already been opened in Goes, an extra unit has been installed in Terneuzen and the test location has been open longer in Zierikzee. A test location in Vlissingen will also be added early next month.
If it were up to the GGD, that location would have opened yesterday, but Wintermans put a stop to that. “The GGD called us on Wednesday if we could have a test street operational in Vlissingen on Friday. That is really too short a day,” he tells NRC.
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