People who live further away from coronavirus test centres are less likely to get tested, according to the Dutch statistics office.

The CBS reports that although more centres opened, so the average distance to travel was 6.2km in January, the further away people live, the less likely they are to get a test. This pattern is most acute if they do not own a motor vehicle.

Between August 2020, when people lived on average 8.7km from a test site, and January 2021, between 500,000 and 1.6 million people a month had an official GGD health service test.

This meant that each month between 3% and 9% of the Dutch population had an official test. The CBS noted that when people were further from a centre, they were less likely to get an official check, although it is unknown whether they may have used another test provider.

When people lived more than 10km from a site and had no motor vehicle, they were half as likely to have a test (3%, compared with 6.2% of those with no car or scooter living less than 3km away).

Dutch residents between 18 and 40 were most likely to be tested for coronavirus in this period.