Covid vaccinations to start on Wednesday at hospitals, parts of N. Brabant; Priority plan revealed

After intense pressure on Health Minister Hugo de Jonge, the Netherlands has decided to start vaccinating people against Covid-19 on Wednesday. The first people to be vaccinated will be certain healthcare workers at hospitals, and nursing home workers who were offered the opportunity to get vaccinated at the Hart voor Brabant vaccination facility in Veghel.

According to the Ministry of Health, an estimated 30 thousand healthcare workers will be able to get their inoculations at a hospital. "The worrying situation in acute care is partly prompted by the sick leave of care workers, often coronavirus-related," the ministry said in a statement. First priority will be given to those working in coronavirus wards, intensive care units and emergency rooms, as well as ambulance crews.

"Given the nationwide scarcity of vaccines, not all employees in the ICU, ER, COVID wards, or ambulance and helicopter services can be vaccinated in the first round," the national network of acute care providers LNAZ said in a statement. "For the time being, this concerns healthcare staff who provide direct patient care and whose absence due to illness has direct consequences for the admission capacity."

Those working in nursing homes and smaller care facilities will also be first to get the vaccine at the country's 26 mass vaccination locations (full list), established in each of the 25 regions of municipal health service GGD. This group is comprised of 269 thousand workers who will get early access to the vaccine. Following them, the 178 thousand people providing care to those who have disabilities will be able to sign up, and then the 166 thousand healthcare providers who work on-location based on their clients' needs, including home care nurses.

The Veghel location opens on Wednesday. The facilities in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond and Utrecht regions will open up on Friday. On Monday, January 11, the vaccination points serving Amsterdam-Amstelland, Drenthe and Haaglanden will be opened. The remaining 20 locations, including two in Zeeland, will open three days ahead of schedule on January 15.

The first plan from De Jonge called for the vaccination process to begin on January 4, which was then rescheduled for later in the month, before it was brought back to January 8. The most recent plan was for vaccines to first be distributed at Veghel, and then in Rotterdam and Utrecht by January 11, before opening all national locations on January 18.

So far, a vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech has been the only one to receive approval by the European Medicines Agency. A decision on a vaccine from Moderna could be released later on Monday.