From Monday, January 4, thousands of healthcare workers across the Netherlands will receive invitations to book an appointment to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The first vaccinations will take place on January 8.
A GGD call centre was opened at 8am on Monday morning to allow those who receive an invitation to schedule an appointment. The first to receive the invitation are people who work in nursing homes and similar care facilities, followed by doctors and nurses working on ICU wards.
On Sunday, it was announced that GPs will also be prioritised, but they will receive the first batch of the Moderna vaccine instead of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine that is currently being distributed across Europe. The Moderna vaccine is yet to be approved by the European Medicine Agency, but it is possible that an announcement will take place this week.
Different regions are set to commence immunisations on different days. The first vaccinations against coronavirus will take place on Friday, January 8, in Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Brabant. Workers in other regions will have to wait a little longer to receive their vaccine - but the GGD has announced that the remaining 22 regions in the Netherlands will be able to start earlier than was initially planned.
In Amsterdam, for example, the first vaccinations were scheduled for January 18. They are now set to take place on January 11. The same applies to The Hague and Drenthe. The remaining regions will start on January 15. The GGD has set up 24 vaccination locations in all major Dutch cities, as well as one at Schiphol Airport.