Vaccination rate among Zeeland kids drops below 75%; GGD worried

Less than 75 percent of Zeeland children have received all the vaccinations against diseases like measles, polio, and meningococcus. That is the lowest percentage in the Netherlands and far below the RIVM standard of 90 percent. GGD Zeeland is very concerned, Omroep Zeeland reports.

“You get optimal protection with the highest possible vaccination rate. We do not achieve that in Zeeland. As a result, the chance of an outbreak and the consequences thereof are considerably greater,” Marlene Nieskens of the Zeeland health service told the broadcaster.

Not a single Zeeland municipality achieves the 90 percent coverage target. Remerswaal, Borsele, Tholen, and Sluis are even below 70 percent.

Many Zeeland residents refuse vaccination for religious reasons. However, since the pandemic, the vaccination rate has fallen particularly sharply among non-believers. “People who had doubts about the coronavirus vaccines are now also choosing not to vaccinate their children with vaccines from the National Program,” Nieskens said.

Nieskens told the broadcaster that she respects that people can have doubts, but many of their arguments are nonsense. “We only work with vaccines that are safe and proven effective. Otherwise, we would not give them,” she said, urging Zeeland residents to get their kids vaccinated. “The vaccines are safe. And it concerns all kinds of diseases that can be very serious and can be prevented with a simple vaccination.”

GGD Zeeland hopes that municipalities in the province will investigate how they can better reach vaccine refusers and convince them to get their shots.

Throughout the Netherlands, 84.2 percent of children are fully vaccinated by age 2, NOS reported. Zeeland closes the list with a vaccination rate of 74.8 percent. The GGD regions Hart voor Brabant (79.0%), Amsterdam (79.2%), Gelderland-Midden (79.3%), and Rotterdam-Rijnmond (80.9%) complete the bottom five regions with the lowest vaccination rates.

Only the GGD Gooi en Vechtstreek and the GGD Groningen regions achieve the RIVM target of 90 percent coverage. IJssleand (89.2%), Drenthe (89.1%), and Twente (89.1%) come close.