GGD Utrecht extends Covid vaccination appointments through midnight

The GGD vaccination site at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht will remain open until 11:45 p.m. every day starting from Wednesday. The extended working hours are a pilot project to determine the demand for late night vaccination appointments among the population. According to broadcaster NOS, all Wednesday time slots were fully booked.

Anyone who has their vaccine appointment during the later hours before the curfew is abolished on April 28 will be exempt from the order. They will need to show a copy of their curfew self-declaration form, and a confirmation of the vaccination appointment if stopped by officers on the street. Anyone stopped on the way home can also show the vaccination certificate they received.

The pilot project in which vaccination site working hours were extended is the first of its kind in the country, with GGD sites mostly open only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Family physicians giving vaccine injections mainly work during or within a few hours of office hours, and on weekends during the daytime. Should the pilot project go well, more locations could also be told to keep their doors open for longer periods of time.

The RIVM estimated that a total of 4,688,307 jabs have been given in the Netherlands since the vaccination began in January. Last week, the projected target was surpassed by nearly five percent with 794,520 doses administered.