Covid-19 vaccination registration still lagging; Over 1 million Dutch waiting for proof: Report

Public health institute RIVM is still struggling with major backlogs in getting all Covid-19 vaccinations registered on it's system. Over 1 million Netherlands residents are still waiting for the proof they'll soon need to travel abroad more easily, AD reports.

A spokesperson for the RIVM told the newspaper that an estimated 82.4 percent of administered Covid-19 vaccines have been processed in the central database. With a total of about 10 million vaccines administered, this means that nearly 1.8 million are not in the system. About 5 to 10 percent are not recorded at the vaccinated person's request. For the rest, there are other causes like dragging administration or communication problems. But sometimes, it is simply unclear what went wrong, people involved told AD.

According to the newspaper, the RIVM is especially struggling to get vaccines administered by general practitioners into their database. Only about 60 percent of these injections have already been registered, the RIVM estimates. Most vaccines administered by health service GGD are in the system.

The RIVM is working hard to solve these problems, the spokesperson said to the RIVM. "Every day we get a step further too. But sometimes it's looking for the exact cause, it is a complex process."

The registration of administered vaccines is important for the CoronaCheck app, a government app that can be used to enter events and the like. Since Saturday, the app can be used to show that someone recently tested negative for Covid-19. The expectation is that it will show vaccination status from July. The app must eventually make it easier to go on holiday, for example.

From today, all GGD vaccination sites will also record Covid-19 shots in the yellow vaccination booklets. These booklets are often used by travelers to show they have been vaccinated against certain diseases. The yellow booklet is an alternative to the CoronaCheck app, as the government has access to the app data, but doesn't know which stamp is in a booklet.

SDU, which publishes these yellow booklets, received tens of thousands of orders over the past days, NU.nl reports. Usually, the company produces about 300 thousand copies per year.