De Jonge: All adults can secure Covid vaccine booster appointment by January 7

All adult residents in the Netherlands will be able to make an appointment for a Covid-19 booster vaccine shot by January 7 at the latest, said Health Minister Hugo de Jonge. He wants everyone from the age of 18 to have received a booster shot by the end of January. “We must be finished with this booster offensive in the second half of January. By then everyone, will have had the chance to get a booster,” he said during a press conference where a new lockdown was announced.

The initial goal is to give the extra jab to as many people over 60 as possible before the end of the year. Those under 60 will begin to be invited to schedule their appointments starting at the beginning of next week.

People are only well-protected against the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus with a booster shot, the minister said. He is calling on people who are already able to schedule an appointment for a jab to do so using the GGD’s website as soon as possible. He also called on unvaccinated people to get themselves vaccinated.

If the website is down, or if no appointment time slots are available, “try again a day later,” he said. “Some people over 60 have an appointment in January. If space becomes available, they will receive a text message from the GGD to bring their appointment forward.”

A million shots should be administered next week, which should increase to 1.5 million booster shots the following week. Some GGD locations will get extra lines to handle more people, and the opening hours will be extended so that more vaccinations can be given.

There is no shortage of vaccines. "Vaccines are not a limiting factor," De Jonge said. The number of people who can administer shots makes it harder to scale up further, he said.

The GGD branches will accelerate the booster campaign again with immediate effect, GGD GHOR Nederland announced. This is above the previous acceleration announced earlier this week. Thousands of employees are working tirelessly to offer all adult residents of the country an extra shot, the organization said. Hospitals, general practitioners, members of the military, first aid officers, and the Red Cross are assisting the GGDs with this task.

GGD GHOR is also asking people to be patient. "Be a little understanding towards each other. Not everything will go smoothly in the coming weeks. That is impossible during the enormous operation that the GGDs are undertaking," the organization said.