Vaccination rate in Flanders remains stable

“The figures for toddlers, preschoolers and adolescents are stable and high,” says Kirsten Maertens of the University of Antwerp. “We even see a significant increase for pregnant women. So there is no impact of the pandemic.”

Flanders is thus “in the best cohorts worldwide in terms of vaccination”, says Maertens. In other countries, the researchers do see a clear decrease. On an international scale, Flanders continues to be a good student for vaccinations in, among other things, babies and toddlers.

“The vaccination programs especially in poorer countries collapsed,” says Niels Heselmans of the Growing Up Agency. “There we see a drastic decrease in basic vaccinations for young children during the corona pandemic. Significant differences were also found in the basic vaccinations of 0 to 3-year-olds in some western countries.”

Flemish Minister of Health Wouter Beke also notes that the vaccination through corona has remained virtually intact. Beke is particularly pleased with the finding that young children in deprivation found their way to the basic vaccination program more easily than before corona.

The statistics do show a brief hiccup in the timeliness of the administration of the vaccines during the lockdown, although a catch-up movement was quickly started. In addition, a limited delay in the administration of vaccines does not pose serious health risks, it sounds.

However, the Growing Up agency still sees room for improvement. “In the area of ​​registration, we sometimes still notice irregularities,” says Heselmans. “For example, parents can sometimes indicate that their child was given a vaccine, but this was not indicated by the attending physician in Vaccinnet, the umbrella registration program.”

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