8.4% of Netherlands adults now partially vaccinated against Covid-19

Dutch healthcare workers have administered at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to 1,207,904 adults in the Netherlands. That equates to 8.4 percent of nearly 14.4 million people aged 18 and older in the country, according to data from public health agency RIVM through March 7.

That includes 19,259 people between the ages of 75 and 79 living in their own homes. Invitations to people in that group were first sent out last week, the RIVM said, and about three percent of Netherlands residents in that group have been inoculated.

Some 411,935 adults have been given their second dose of one of the three vaccines used in Europe, just shy of 2.9 percent of adults. The Netherlands ranks in the bottom third of EU nations for the portion of the population fully vaccinated against Covid-19, but tied for eighth with Slovenia for partially vaccinated adults.

Though the Pfizer vaccine is approved for use in Europe with people as young as 16, it is not yet used by 16- and 17-year-olds in the Netherlands. Vaccines from Moderna and AstraZeneca were only approved for adults 18 and up.

Roughly 6.9 percent of the entire population, including children, have been at least partially vaccinated.

Provisional data from the RIVM showed that about 36,200 more injections were administered on Monday. That pushed the seven-day average down to 39,513. Though the country received 208 thousand vaccine doses from BioNTech/Pfizer and 216 thousand doses from AstraZeneca last week, it was anticipating a delay of over 210 thousand doses from the latter this month.

The RIVM previously warned that this could lead to a temporary slowdown in the vaccination process.