People visiting the Netherlands from abroad should be required to take a coronavirus test before travelling, health minister Hugo de Jonge has told parliament.

De Jonge wants to change the law to make it obligatory for travellers arriving from high-risk countries, including Dutch residents returning home, to produce a negative test taken within the last 48 hours. The legislation is not expected to pass before the spring.

Existing regulations allow testing to be made compulsory for travellers from outside the EU who are exempted from the general ban on inbound travel, such as business travellers and partners.

The reform would also allow the government to shorten the time that travellers from outside the EU currently have to spend in quarantine, De Jonge said in a letter to MPs.

Under the minister’s plan all visitors would be tested within five days of landing in the Netherlands, whether or not they had coronavirus symptoms.