1 million unregistered vaccinations could cause delay for European vaccination passport

The backlog in registered Covid-19 vaccinations will likely complicate the introduction of a European vaccination passport, Nieuwsuur reported. Currently, the RIVM is still not up to date on the total number of vaccinations in the Netherlands, as Health Minister Hugo de Jonge also acknowledged.

“As is Dutch tradition, there are 38 systems where coronavirus vaccinations are registered. All of these need to come to the RIVM. That is a painstaking job”, de Jonge said according to NOS.

An estimated 8,181,911 vaccines administered since the inoculation program began in January, according to the RIVM's figures on Saturday.

So far, only half of the Covid-19 vaccinations performed by GPs have been registered at the RIVM. Additionally, less than half of the jabs that have been made in healthcare institutions have not been entered into the RIVM’s central system (CIMS). This amounts to approximately one million injections that are not included in RIVM data.

The National General Practitioners' Association (LHV) claimed that the GPs’ systems are connected with the RIVM and are, therefore, automatically transferred. The RIVM stated, on the other hand, that data is still missing. It is unclear as of now what the cause of the backlog is.

“GPs register the vaccines in their existing information system. They were not told to purchase or install a new system. The link between the existing and the RIVM was arranged by the suppliers of the system and the public health agency. So far as we are aware, this point has not been an issue”, a spokesperson for the LHV said.

The QR codes for the European vaccination pass are almost ready to be used and could be introduced by the beginning of July, however, if the data is incomplete the new system would not be accurate.

A task force is currently working on catching up on the backlog in registered vaccines. Around five to ten percent of injections were not registered because people did not tick the box to have their data passed on to the RIVM. Many were not aware that this means they will not receive a European QR code that would facilitate traveling between countries.

“We still have to come up with a solution, but that could take some time”, de Jonge said. It is unclear if the backlog will be rectified by the end of June.