Many healthcare workers never got their Covid booster shots

Two in five people who work in healthcare have not received a booster shot against the coronavirus. The booster rate is 61 percent, offering "room for improvement," the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS) concluded.

About 83 percent of healthcare workers have had at least one coronavirus jab. The group had priority in the first round of vaccinations because they come into contact with coronavirus patients more and are therefore more likely to become infected. They could also infect vulnerable patients themselves. The priority vaccination also aimed to keep healthcare running.

Employees of academic hospitals and ambulance services most often got vaccinated against the coronavirus. Their turnout is 93 percent. GPs were most likely to get a booster shot (75 percent). The vaccination turnout and booster rate are the lowest in childcare.

The older the employee, the more chance they got a booster shot. Proportionally, more men than women got boosted, the study showed.

Relatively, more people in healthcare got vaccinated against the coronavirus than in other sectors. In other sectors, 77 percent had at least one shot, and 52 percent also got boosted.