The vaccination campaign in the residential care centers is on its last legs. Newcomers, about 1,200 a week, prefer to be vaccinated in the vaccination centers.
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Two and a half months ago, the first injections with a covid vaccine were administered in the residential care centers, and the endpoint will be reached in Flanders in the next two weeks. Nearly a thousand more doses are on the program, more than 338,000 injections have been given to residents and staff. With a vaccination rate of currently 87.7 percent, Flemish nursing home residents are therefore well protected.
But what about the new residents? “We advise them to move to the vaccination center,” says Dirk Dewolf, General Administrator of the Agency for Care and Health. ‘For those who find that difficult, we ask the doctors associated with the residential care center to reserve the vaccines at the vaccination center, collect them there and then administer them.’
It is not a small group, according to the Agency there are about 1,200 newcomers per week. Because the vaccination has started in the general population over 65 years, there will be more and more people among those new residents who have already received an injection.
An answer to every question
The number of outbreaks in residential care centers has decreased significantly compared to the beginning of this year. This week there were 21 centers that were still struggling with corona. In a nursing home in Lommel, there were a number of new residents among the infected people who had not yet received a vaccine.
The emphasis of the campaign is now shifting fully to the vaccination centers. A number of complex weeks await them. ‘Various vaccines will be used, the mobile teams will start up and the IT is not yet fully developed,’ says Dewolf. “With every ripple in the media about the vaccinations, the people who work in the centers must also have an answer ready to reassure concerned people with the correct information.”
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