Local health boards are preparing to increase the number of vaccines they can deliver to 1.5 million per week by the start of May.

André Rouvoet, chair of the national umbrella organisation GGD GHOR Nederland, said 140 vaccination centres would become operational in the next two months, rising from the current number of 60.

‘We are getting ready with thousands of dedicated health board workers across the country and together with many partners, including defence staff and the Red Cross, to be able to vaccinate at high speed as soon as the peak number of vaccines is made available in the second quarter of the year,’ he said.

Last week health minister Hugo de Jonge said a target of giving all adults a first dose of the vaccine by July was ‘realistic’.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told German media on Monday that 100 million doses would be arriving across the EU per month from April.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to make a decision on approving the Janssen vaccine, developed in Leiden for Johnson & Johnson, later this week.

The Dutch government was criticised in January for being the last in Europe to start vaccinating against Covid-19, but the programme has since picked up speed and last week nearly 300,000 injections were given.