Priority corona test for healthcare and education personnel
The cabinet will prioritize corona tests for primary and secondary education teaching staff and for staff from the healthcare sector. The GGD must have arranged this by the end of next week, is the aim of Minister Hugo de Jonge.
Picture: Raimond Spekking
Ministers De Jonge (VWS) and Arie Slob (OCW) were put under considerable pressure by the unions, but each time pointed out insufficient capacity at the laboratories. In the meantime, schools went buy your own tests, or were forced to send classes home.
Societal impact
The priority will now come anyway. In a letter to the House of Representatives states that the rapid test is intended for persons 'necessary to prevent students from not receiving education' in primary and secondary education. MBO and higher education fall outside the scheme, as does the childcare sector. 'The social impact of the failure of care and education weighs more heavily for me and, moreover, setting priority for these two groups already requires a lot from the GGD and other parties', De Jonge writes about his choice.
The minister wants the so-called fast lane ready by the end of next week. Only caregivers and teachers themselves, not their families, are eligible for priority testing. He also writes that it is a temporary measure, due to the scarcity of test capacity. The intention is that soon everyone will be tested again quickly.
Also priority for MBO, HBO and WO
AObchairperson Eugenie Stolk: "It is wise to give teaching staff priority. Even more dropouts are no longer sustainable for some schools. Corona comes on top of the teacher shortage, we should not forget that."
However, the AOb that staff in secondary vocational education, higher professional education and universities must also be tested with priority. Stolk: "The situation is also dire there and the number of infections has risen sharply among young people."
