Umbrella organization GGD GHOR Netherlands calls on people not to call the general practitioner, medical specialist or the local GGD with questions about vaccinating vulnerable people with leftover vaccines. According to the organization, it also “makes no sense” to come to a location in the hope of a leftover dose.
GGD GHOR Netherlands says it will receive many questions on Friday about vaccinating vulnerable people with the so-called ‘surplus’: the vaccine doses that remain after an injection day. Outgoing Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge said on Thursday that the health service may also give the remaining doses to vulnerable people, after it previously seemed as if the surplus was only intended for hospital and GGD employees.
GGD GHOR Netherlands wants to avoid disappointment among vulnerable people who now think they may be more likely to qualify for an injection. “Six syringes can be extracted from a Pfizer / BioNTech vial,” explains a spokesperson.
“If people opt out of their vaccination, we leave the vials unopened. At the end of the day, we always have a maximum of one opened vial containing unused doses.” Sometimes that is five doses, sometimes only one and on average it is two to three per day per injection site.
If GGDs have leftover corona vaccines, they must first give them to stimulators themselves or to other employees at a GGD vaccination location. If there is any vaccine left after that, the services are free to decide who those doses go to. In doing so, they must remain as close as possible to the vaccination strategy, which means that, for example, they give priority to people with an increased medical risk, hospital staff and the elderly.
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