Half of unvaccinated Covid patients in hospital are from ethnic minorities: report

About half of the unvaccinated coronavirus patients currently hospitalized in the Netherlands are from ethnic minorities, the Dutch association of pulmonologists found in a survey of Dutch hospitals, AD reports.

For weeks the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients has been fluctuating between 600 and 700, about 200 in intensive care and over 400 in nursing wards. According to public health institute RIVM, about 90 percent of the hospitalized patients have not been vaccinated. The other 10 percent did not respond well to the vaccine, or have underlying conditions like a weakened immune system. 

According to Leon van den Toorn, the chairman of the Dutch Association of Physicians for Pulmonary Diseases and Tuberculosis, between 40 and 60 percent of the unvaccinated patients appear to have a non-Western background. The wide margin of error is because not all of the surveyed hospitals responded. 

"The survey is not to stigmatize, but to contribute to a solution," Van den Toorn said to the newspaper. This shows in which population groups the government needs to put in more effort to get the vaccination rate up.