Vaccination rate will need to step up to 700,000 a week to stay on schedule

The vaccination rate for coronavirus increased last week, but will have to speed up rapidly to meet health minister Hugo de Jonge’s target of 4 million jabs by the middle of April.

In the last seven days 285,000 injections were given, bringing the estimated total up to 2,355,458. Another 416,000 vaccines are planned for the coming week, which if realised would allow the government to meet its target of 2.5 million by the end of the month.

However, at last week’s press conference De Jonge outlined a new schedule with the aim of ensuring everybody over 18 has received their first dose by the start of July.

The vaccination rate will have to accelerate to 700,000 per week in order to achieve 4 million injections by mid-April, while the 5 million mark is due to be reached at the beginning of May.

The Netherlands started to catch up with the rest of Europe in the first half of March, but the pace slackened in the third week following the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the third lowest in the EU, ahead of only Latvia and Bulgaria.

On Monday the first ‘pop-up’ vaccination centre was opened in Zandvoort. The portable container is designed primarily for elderly people with low mobility and can be used for 75 injections per day.