NL – Ernst Kuipers, chairman of the National Acute Care Network, announced on Saturday afternoon that vaccinations will most likely not take place in hospitals before the planned date of January 8. “The distribution of the vaccine, which has to be stored at -70 degrees and comes in batches of a thousand pieces, just takes a few days,” he told NOS. This followed the announcement by the government that they endeavor to speed up the vaccination start date.
Kuipers also said that a plan is now being drawn up with the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport and the RIVM to distribute the vaccines among the hospitals as quickly as possible. “But it takes time to plan and roll out vaccines,” he stressed.
He called it “fantastic news” that the cabinet has decided to place acute care workers in the first vaccination group, emphasizing that “these employees are crucial to healthcare and the pressure on healthcare will remain high in the near future. So the sooner they are vaccinated, the better.”
Diederik Gommers, chairman of the Dutch Intensive Care Association, also expressed his delight for the cabinet’s decision to vaccinate acute care workers first. “This is very important for what can happen next month,” he told news agency ANP in relation to the new fast-spreading strain of the virus first discovered in the UK.
