“XL Test Pavilion Utrecht” is written in large letters on the purple facade of two large pavilions. In two weeks time, they were built in a parking lot at the Utrecht Jaarbeurs. Monday morning, this largest test location in the Netherlands went into operation. And so, after months of shortages, much more test capacity is now being created than is being used.
The Utrecht XL test location has no test streets where cars drive through. More than 10 thousand corona tests per day can be administered, if necessary, in a total of forty test rooms: 20 of these pens are built into both pavilions.
When the light tube in such a room turns green, the front person in the queue reports and is allowed to hold his ID to the window. After his ID has been scanned, he can take a seat in that room to undergo the now established PCR test ritual: in which a GGD employee inserts a cotton swab into his nose and throat.
A young girl in red pants, a man in gray sweatpants and a woman with glasses were the first to take a corona test on Monday morning at the test site that shines with novelty. After that, more candidates slowly trickled in. What is certain, however, is that not many more than about a thousand tests per day will be administered this first week – a fraction of what is possible in this location with the largest testing capacity in the country.
“We are proud to have built these fantastic pavilions in two weeks. We are taking a big step forward in the testing policy, “said Nicolette Rigter, director of public health of the GGD region of Utrecht, at the opening. “That’s important, because tests tell people whether they have a simple cold or corona.”
Mega-sized test locations
After the one in Groningen, the XL test location in Utrecht is the second of the eight mega-large test locations that will open these weeks, spread across the country. Defense is helping to achieve this quickly.
With the opening of those XL test lanes, where both regular PCR tests and rapid tests are taken, the Dutch test capacity will double, promises “corona minister” Hugo de Jonge. According to him, this extra test capacity is necessary to keep the economy going as much as possible.
In the XL test locations, set up in collaboration with the GGDs, the employers’ organization VNO-NCW and the Ministry of Defense, between 3,000 and 10,000 tests can be taken every day. In addition to the regular PCR tests, these are also rapid tests; include the LAMP test, the PCR rapid test and antigen tests. In the long term, the intention is that the breath rapid test will also be used.
Rapid antigen tests
This week, only regular PCR tests will be conducted in Utrecht. They are expected to start using rapid antigen tests from next week. But it is not yet clear who will be eligible for these rapid tests. For the time being, only people with complaints will be eligible for a rapid test, because it is not yet clear how accurate these tests are for people without complaints.
The waiting time for a corona test increased from the end of August due to a shortage of laboratory capacity. When that capacity was ready at the beginning of October, the GGDs were waiting for the consumption capacity of their test lanes to increase. The waiting time for a corona test and its results are now within the agreed limits of twice 24 hours everywhere.
For months the Netherlands has been sighing under a lack of testing capacity, now a situation of overcapacity has arrived. But that is precisely the intention, said GGD leader André Rouvoet last week. “It is not at all bad if the supply of the test streets are not fully utilized. We have to be prepared for the winter and the flu waves. And in this way we can also offer people without complaints the opportunity to have themselves tested. ”
Because that must now be the next step. Until now, only people with complaints were welcome on the test lanes. People without complaints will soon be able to get tested. For example, if the source and contact research or the corona app shows that they have been in contact with a corona patient. Or if they have just returned from a country with a lot of infections.
