1 millionth Covid vaccine administered in Netherlands

The Netherlands reached the milestone of administering its 1 millionth vaccine against Covid-19, Health Minister Hugo de Jonge announced in a video on Sunday. 

"We could only achieve this thanks to the unbridled efforts of many people. A lot of people made their unique contribution," De Jonge said in a video posted on Twitter. He believes that the 2 million vaccines administered milestone will be reached by mid-March.

The 1 millionth vaccine was administered about five days behind schedule based on the February 3 analysis of public health institute RIVM. The health institute's current prediction states that the 2 millionth vaccine will be administered in a little over two weeks.

That does not mean 1 million Netherlands residents have been vaccinated against the coronavirus - some shots involve second doses. All three vaccines currently being used in the country require two doses.

An update will be given by the RIVM on Tuesday about the number of injections which were a second dose used to provide a patient with maximum protection against Covid-19. Last week the agency said that about 154 thousand of the first 783 thousand shots given were actually someone’s second injection, meaning that at that time about 3.6 percent of the population was at least partially protected against the disease.

The Netherlands is currently using three coronavirus vaccine. The first to become available was the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The Netherlands administered its first shot on January 6. The first Moderna vaccine was administered later in January, and the first AstraZeneca one on February 12. 

Vandaag de #miljoensteprik. Door hard werk van velen bij @GGDGHOR, @RIVM, @LNAcuteZorg, @LHVhuisartsen, @verenso, @NVAVG, @ActiZbranche, @VGNbranche en meer. Dankzij jullie krijgen we steeds meer grip op het virus en komt het volgende miljoen snel dichterbij. Heel veel dank! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ZRK5mH6rwU

— Hugo de Jonge (@hugodejonge) February 21, 2021