Dutch Covid vaccination plan too slow; Help needed, trade union says

The Netherlands' vaccination plan against the coronavirus is too slow and the capacity to give the injections is much too low, according to trade union CNV. This puts the Netherlands at "great risk" that not everyone will be vaccinated by the end of the year, the trade union said, NOS reports.

"Anyone who wants to get vaccinated now sometimes has to be on hold at a call center for an hour. It is all getting off to a slow start. The number of people who will soon be vaccinated is too low. Moreover, we are now only injecting during office hours. While we are in such a deep health crisis. Unbelievable," CNV chairman Piet Fortuin said.

The current vaccination policy puts the Netherlands at risk of running months of delay, according to the union. Help is needed to speed things up. CNV suggested deploying employees from the events and hospitality sectors to help, and for vaccinations to be done from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, including over weekends.

"The tens of thousands of unemployed people in the catering and events sectors must be trained as quickly as possible to vaccinate under supervision of professionals. A large part of these can learn to do the injections themselves, some can be used excellently to organize the logistics around the injection. The thousands of event workers who are now on the sidelines must therefore be used en masse to make vaccination a success," Fortuin said to the broadcaster."