The Ministry of Health has missed a warning from the GGD in Rotterdam, Minister De Jonge acknowledges. But the warning could also have been more explicit, he thinks.
At the end of July, the GGD sent a memo stating that source and contact investigation was endangered by the rapidly increasing number of infections, NRC reported. Nothing was subsequently done with that information.
The GGDs in Rotterdam and Amsterdam had the investigation last Friday scaling down considerably, while De Jonge had said the day before that the capacity was sufficient.
Through the front door
“The signal from the memo was not picked up at the time,” said the minister. According to him, this was partly because the piece was mainly about something else, namely about where the number of infections rose and what could be done about it. “And yes, there was also a passage that refers to the need to adjust the source and contact research.”
De Jonge would have liked to have known, he emphasizes. “Then there would have been a chance to come to the rescue sooner.” But he also thinks that the Rotterdam GGD could have given a signal “through the front door”, to the national GGD organization or to the ministry.
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