Rutte: self-testing is crucial to keep infections low in holiday season
Dutch NewsPrime minister Mark Rutte has urged people going abroad this summer to test themselves for coronavirus on their return, even if they have been vaccinated. Rutte said testing would play a ‘crucial’ role in keeping infections down going into the autumn. The government is sending letters out to eight million households this month that will allow them to claim two free self-testing kits, but Rutte said it was part of an ‘awareness campaign’ and not a move to compulsory mass testing. ‘Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you can still catch the virus and infect others.’ People who go away to ‘yellow’ countries in the EU, where infection levels are still relatively high, must show either proof of vaccination or recovery or a negative coronavirus test before they travel home. ‘We see the number of infections has gone down and the number of hospital admissions is no longer rising,’ Rutte said.