Dutch people who receive a warning from the CoronaMelder app can no longer always have themselves tested. That is what Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) states in a letter to parliament.
The new policy was announced Friday and went into effect Saturday.
The CoronaMelder warns users if they may have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus. In a previous test version of the app, everyone who received a message became recalled to come and have a corona test. In this way it had to become clear who was actually infected.
That changed on Saturday. Users who receive a notification are not asked to come to a test site if they have no symptoms. However, people can still make an appointment in case of health complaints.
Decrease pressure
In this way De Jonge wants to reduce the pressure on test locations. Many Dutch people have difficulty making a test appointment due to the growing demand.
Although the rules have changed, the app will not immediately show this in the correct way everywhere. That will happen no later than September 15th. Staff have been instructed to apply the new rules when making test appointments.
The CoronaMelder is being tested in the regions of Drenthe, South Gelderland, IJsselland, North and East Gelderland and Twente. Later, the app should be released nationwide.
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