Dutch to give earlier Covid jabs to one million with medical conditions

A million people aged between 18 and 60 with pre-existing medical conditions will be able to receive their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine by the beginning of June, due to the early delivery of almost two million Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines, according to AD.

People from this group will start receiving their invitations next week via their general physicians, after which they will have to make an appointment at one of the GGD vaccination locations. A spokesperson for public health agency RIVM, extra deliveries will speed up the general vaccination process meaning other groups will also be able to benefit from it. Those vaccines are to be delivered in increments of 150,000 to 200,000 per week.

"The accelerated delivery of Pfizer provides an acceleration of about a week on the total of first injections for the total population," said RIVM spokesperson.

The million people in this group had previously been delayed their vaccinations by up to three weeks as a result of the decision to stop administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to people under the age of 60 over rare blood clot side effects. The initial vaccination plan suggested this group would have received the first injection by the end of May, which was later postponed to mid-June.

According to the most recent RIVM decision, people from this group will have the chance to receive the first shot by early June.