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The Vaccination Task Force expects the first delivery of the Pfizer vaccine for children next week. This first batch involves about 186,000 doses. They have a different composition and dosage than the adult vaccines.
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“We are now waiting for advice from the Superior Health Council,” said Dirk Dewolf, CEO of the Agency for Care and Health. A decision by the competent ministers is expected by 17 December at the latest. The first invitations can then leave at the end of this year, and the vaccinations can then start in January. This concerns approximately 490,000 5- to 11-year-olds. The place of vaccination is decided locally. In other words, in the vaccination center, or in another ‘child-friendly location’.
Adults
A quarter of adults in Flanders will have had a booster shot by the end of this week. This puts us among the European top. Currently, mainly 55 to 64-year-olds are invited. There are few no shows and refusals: we are below 7 percent of people who do not show, and the number of refusals is very low at 0.23 percent. “That is a reassuring observation,” says Dewolf. Small side note, currently mainly the older generations are discussed. The willingness to vaccinate is on average higher among them than among young people.
The European Medicines Agency is opening the door to administer the booster shot after just three months. The Superior Health Council has been requested to urgently advise on this. If we shortened the gap from 6 to 3 months at Pfizer and Moderna, 1 million people would ‘shift’ from February to January. The question is whether the vaccination centers can handle such an increase. “We should not expect the impossible,” said Dewolf. Today the capacity is 350,000 shots per week. In the spring the centers peaked at 450,000. That may no longer be feasible. Some centers have since closed.
Christmas period
The schedule for the coming weeks: 360,000 booster shots next week, and 182,000 in the week of December 20 (Christmas weekend). Since this week people are switching to Moderna everywhere. “We have 2.1 million doses in stock. This will therefore remain the most commonly used vaccine, unlike in the spring. Then the Pfizer vaccine was dominant.”
There are signs that quite a few vaccination centers are closed between Christmas and New Years. The Agency for Care and Health has also taken care of this. “It is difficult to find sufficient manpower in this critical period,” says Dewolf. This concerns both volunteers and staff needed to administer the vaccine. “We want to wish everyone a Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and New Year, but the minister (Flemish Minister of Welfare Wouter Beke, ed.) has asked for continuity to be maintained as far as possible.”
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