Back in March, the outgoing Dutch Minister for Health, Hugo de Jonge, claimed that anyone in the Netherlands who wants to get vaccinated against coronavirus should be able to get their first jab by July.
To live up to these claims, the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is now ramping up the country’s vaccination strategy.
The GGDs — which currently have the capacity to administer 1.5 million injections every week — are preparing to bring this number up to two million doses per week from the end of May.
More vaccines delivered
The Netherlands is expecting large deliveries of coronavirus vaccines in the coming weeks. Pfizer/BioNTech and the one-shot Janssen vaccine will make up the majority of these, reports NU.nl.
In April, De Jonge claimed that 2.5 million injections need to be given every week from May. At the moment, the Netherlands is at about 800,000 per week.
Hospitals will also administer vaccines
From the end of May, GGDs will aim to vaccinate two million per week with Dutch hospitals administering the surplus. In line with the ministry’s aim, this would give hospitals the responsibility to administer half a million vaccines weekly. However, the actual number will vary depending on the deliveries.
Jabs for the young and healthy
The idea is that hospitals would vaccinate predominantly young and healthy people, according to the NOS. While hospitals are still busy with coronavirus patients, they claim to have sufficient staff to administer vaccines.
“Nurses or students in particular will inject, under medical supervision of a doctor. It’s not a complicated operation,” claims the Dutch National Network of Acute Care (LNAZ).
Invitations via RIVM
The hospitals will not be inviting patients. Everyone will receive a letter from the RIVM and can then make an appointment online. If everything goes as planned, predictions are that about eight million people will get a jab in June.
Up until now, around 5.9 million vaccines have been administered in the Netherlands. About one million of these were a second dose.
Have you been vaccinated yet? What do you think of this new strategy? Let us know in the comments below!
Feature Image: Gustavo Fring/Pexels
