Health and Education Ministers recommend one self-test per week in children | VRT NWS: news VRT NWS: news VRT NWS: news

Politics

The ministers for health and education “strongly recommend” parents to carry out a corona self-test on their children once a week. The self-test is said to play a key role in relaxing testing and quarantine regulations. The government does not want to offer free self-tests. The Federation of Families and the Association of General Practitioners from Domus Medica are disappointed: "The families will quickly feel the costs."

Martina Luxen

Next Monday, testing and quarantine regulations will be relaxed in Belgium. The measure also affects the test strategy: in many cases, PCR tests are replaced by self-tests. Education and Health Ministers are "urging" parents to test their children once a week from Sunday, on the eve of schools reopening after the Christmas holidays.

Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Flemish Socialist, Vooruit) has announced that the tests will be available in pharmacies and supermarkets and that health insurance holders with an increased allowance can continue to buy the self-tests at a cheaper price in pharmacies.

The family association and general practitioners are outraged

The fact that there will be no free self-tests is a thorn in the side of the family association, because the costs will rise quickly, especially for families with many children, says Anneke Blanckaert from interest bond.

"If you have two children and test them once a week, that's 64 euros a month," she told VRT NWS: "That's 200 euros in one trimester. Not everyone can afford it." Blanckaert fears that only those who can afford it will test their children.

The general practitioner association Domus Medica would have preferred to see a different test strategy. "We expected at least a couple of free self-tests per family," said Vice-Chairman Siegfried Van Eygen: "PCR tests that are performed for the right indication are also free for the patient. (...) So we think so that it should be possible to offer free self-tests.”