Over-60s, community care nurses to get AstraZeneca vaccine

Photo: SELF Magazine
Photo: SELF Magazine

The first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be given to people in the 60 to 65 age group, and people working in long-term care services, health minister Hugo de Jonge has decided.

The national health council had recommended targeting people aged 60 to 65 and people with existing medical conditions which put them at risk.

De Jonge said it had been a difficult choice to make, but that he considered it risky to let community nurses and people working in long-term residential care wait too long.

The first delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the Netherlands on Friday. First up for the jab will be health workers, followed by the 60 to 65 age group who will be called up from mid February, he said.

The Netherlands has been allocated 1.3 million doses of the vaccine, rather than the 4.5 million doses on order, because of production problems.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is the third to be cleared for general use by the European Medicines Agency.

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