Fewer than half the 1.4 million people who have health conditions which make them more vulnerable to coronavirus have so far made an appointment to be vaccinated, the regional health board association said on Tuesday.

Some 730,000 people who have diabetes, lung issues or heart problems and are eligible for annual flu shot thave not yet signed up for a jab, the GGD said.

The organisation says it does not know why the take-up rate is so low. And to prevent vaccination centres running out of work, the timetable has now been opened up to people from 1965.

This means advice being drawn up by the national health council Gezondheidsraad about vaccinating the over 50s with the AstraZeneca vaccine will probably come too late, given that is not due to be completed until the end of May, the Volkskrant said.

But by that time, everyone over the age of 50 should have been invited for a first vaccine, the paper said.

Health minister Hugo de Jonge asked for new recommendations on April 26. The council had earlier recommended only giving the vaccine to the over 60s because of the risk of very rare blood clots. The European Medicines Agency, by contrast, has cleared the vaccine for all age groups.

The under-60s in the Netherlands are currently being given the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

7.4 million doses

According to the government’s coronavirus dashboard, 7.4 million doses of vaccine had been administered in the Netherlands by Monday morning and the schedule is running at just under one million a week. That figure, which is an estimate, includes both first and second doses.

In total, some 14 million people in the Netherlands are entitle to a vaccination but estimates vary about how many people will actually do so. According to research by public health institute RIVM, around 75% of people will get vaccinated, with older people more likely to than 18 to 24-year-olds.

De Jonge says every adult who wants to to be vaccinated will have had at least one jab by the beginning of July, as long as supplies hold up.