AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government has purchased 1 million blood tests that can show whether a person has been infected with the coronavirus, the health minister said on Tuesday.
“With this, we can conduct research among the people to get insight into how the coronavirus has spread and how antibodies develop,” Hugo de Jonge said in a statement.
The tests will be carried out by blood donation organization Sanquin, which last month used blood samples to estimate 3% of the Dutch population had so far had the virus.
As of Tuesday there were 41,087 confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands, with 5,168 deaths, according to the country’s Institute for Health.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Chris Reese)
