Join us for the booster shot in Ghent. — © fvv
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Of all adult Flemings whose interval for the booster shot has expired, 90 percent have now been invited. Flemish Minister of Health Wouter Beke (CD&V) announced this on Thursday. In the coming weeks, Flanders wants to further scale up the booster campaign. By the end of January, Flanders is aiming for 3.7 million booster shots and by the end of February, almost all 4.4 million adult Flemings must have had the chance to have the repeat shot.
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evdgSource: BELGIAN
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According to Minister Beke, Flanders is doing everything possible to speed up the booster campaign. It is the intention this year to give all people over 65, people with weakened immunity, residents of residential care centers and many people who have been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson an extra shot. This concerns a total of about 2.5 million Flemish people, almost half of the adult population.
Flanders wants to “prick as many people as possible as quickly as possible”. The speed does depend on the capacity of the vaccination centers, but also on the necessary intervals. For example, an interval of at least two months is foreseen for Johnson & Johnson. For AstraZeneca it is at least four months and for the mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) it is six months.
Weekly 300,000 to 400,000 citizens
According to Minister Beke, 90 percent of the Flemish whose interval has expired have now been invited. Every week, 300,000 to 400,000 citizens join whose interval expires. “Our puncture capacity is sufficiently high to send all these citizens an invitation the same week,” it sounds.
The aim is to have given “as many Flemish people as possible” a booster shot by the end of February. By the end of January, the counter should already be at 3.7 million adult Flemings.
In the meantime, other countries are taking extra measures in the fight against the omikron variant. “The omikron variant certainly worries us and we are closely monitoring the developments of this variant,” said Minister Beke. “We are in constant consultation with the experts about the developments regarding the virus and with the Agency for Care and Health about the progress of our booster campaign.”
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