Covid vaccinations of high-risk people from 18-60 to start; 40% more than expected

People aged 18-60 with underlying medical conditions can make an appointment to receive a Covid-19 vaccine from Thursday. This affects a total of 1.4 million people in the Netherlands, about 400 thousand more than the RIVM had estimated, general practitioners' association LHV told broadcaster NOS.

The group of residents are expected to receive an invitation in the next 10 days. The first vaccine doses should be administered early next week.

The people from this priority group were asked to contact their GPs in recent weeks to tell them if they wanted to be vaccinated. Once the process was completed, it became clear that the group was considerably larger; 40 percent higher than the RIVM previously estimated. 

The LHV said that the previous calculation of just one million was an underestimation of the size of the group, but speculated it was possible that the general practitioners were adding people to the invitation lists at their own discretion. It was made clear to them that only people suffering from diabetes, lung ailments, kidney disorders, and a few other conditions can be included.

To prevent overloading the appointment website and telephone lines at municipal health service GGD, the invitations will be sent out in several phases. An average of 175,000 people are expected to receive an invitation on Thursday and each of the seven work days to follow.

All people in the group are expected to be fully vaccinated by the beginning of June, according to the previously released vaccine schedule from the Ministry of Health. People from this group will be given the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or Moderna vaccine.