The American manufacturer Pfizer will not deliver 600,000, but only 300,000 doses in January. These are good for 150,000 patients, because two injections are required to be protected.
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The American manufacturer Pfizer will not deliver 600,000, but only 300,000 doses in January. These are good for 150,000 patients, because two injections are required to be protected.
But that delay will not have a major impact on the vaccination campaign, those concerned assured in a press conference today. ‘It does not jeopardize the start of the campaign,’ says Pierre Van Damme, professor of vaccinology (UAntwerpen). “Everything is ready to start on January 5th.”
According to Dirk Ramaekers, head of the COVID-19 vaccination strategy operationalization taskforce, the backlog will be ‘almost completely cleared up by the end of February’. Xavier De Cuyper, CEO of the pharmaceutical agency FAMHP, states that from February onwards, our country will receive vaccines for about 200,000 to 250,000 patients per month.
That may seem like a lot, but at that rate it would take more than a year before all vulnerable (about 4 million Belgians) are vaccinated. But it will not take that long, Ramaekers assures. ‘The number of vaccines supplied should increase substantially from March and April. But we must make those estimates with great caution.
Sufficient freezers
According to the task force, there are enough freezers available in our country to store Pfizer’s vaccines. This must be done at a temperature of -70 to -80 degrees. Forty hospitals will act as hubs in the first phase, from which the vaccines will be distributed to residential care centers, hospitals and primary care workers such as general practitioners and pharmacies. For the next phase, which involves vaccination on the general public, additional freezers may have to be purchased.
If the vaccination campaign starts in the residential care centers, it will happen in all provinces simultaneously, Ramaekers assured. The planning that determines which residential care centers will come first has yet to be drawn up.
Initially, it was the intention to vaccinate all residents and staff of one residential care center on one day. But after the first experiences in the UK, that schedule is being adjusted. Two nurses had an allergic reaction to the vaccine.
‘We learned from that, and we immediately adjusted the scripts’, says Pierre Van Damme. ‘We advise not to vaccinate all staff on the same day, because of the possible side effects. In this way, continuity in the residential care center is not compromised. ‘
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