There will be 17 testing stations across the country as part of the exit strategy.

Minister of Health Paulette Lenert and Minister of Higher Education and Research Claude Meisch held a press conference on Tuesday morning.

Large-scale testing for coronavirus will be rolled out across the country, with a testing capacity of up to 20,000 tests per day in 17 centres across the Grand Duchy. The voluntary diagnostic test is designed to help guide the government in lifting restrictions, by providing a detailed overview of the number of infections. The ambitious project will cost up to 40 million euros, covered by the research budget.

Lenert said Luxembourg needed to learn to live with the virus. Numbers are currently looking better and the situation has improved to the extent that testing can be carried out proactively.

8,500 tests have been rolled out as an initial phase for students and teachers this week, with the remainder in place for early May. Meisch appealed to pupils to take advantage of the testing in order to detect potential asymptomatic cases, in a plan which will go nationwide. The school tests will provide an overview of cases which could potentially affect school, and provide data on the virus within younger members of the population.

Meisch underlined that more testing would in turn provide citizens with more freedom.

Retirement and care homes are also undergoing more testing, with initial results appearing to be reassuring.

Employees on building sites, which reopened a week ago, are also being tested. Results are still pending in these cases.

The CON-VINCE study has been running for several weeks, with 1,800 participants chosen to represent the population. These people have been tested for the virus and antibodies, with initial results due this week.

Both ministers appealed to citizens to make the most of the testing possibilities, in order to protect one another and ease a return to normal life. Meisch said Luxembourg was in a prime position to complete the testing project due to its high capacities and low population, in what could be a world first in combating the virus.

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