Caring professionals over the age of 56 to be given Pfizer vaccine from 8 March
From 8 March the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine will be administered at vaccination centres across Belgium for the first time. Belgium’s Vaccination Task Force says that the vaccine will be given to those working in the caring professions that are over the age of 56. The announcement was made at the Task Force’s weekly press briefing.
According to current guidelines those over the age of 56 are not able to be given the vaccine produced by the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals AstraZeneca as long as there is still insufficient scientific evidence that the vaccine is effective among older people. This is why the Pfizer vaccine will be used to vaccine older care professionals.
The Head of the Vaccination Task Force Dirk Ramaekers told journalists that "We are already well advanced with the vaccination of hospital staff and are now moving on to the last groups. So, I assume that within two weeks, around mid-March the vast majority will have been vaccinated”.
“We don’t yet have the exact figures, but from all the feedback we have received it would appear that vaccination levels in the hospitals are especially high”.
Mr Ramaekers added that around 468,000 vaccinations are planned for the next 2 weeks. He added that there is no question of there being a “dead stock” of vaccines. Less than 2% of the vaccines delivered to Belgium so far have not yet been earmarked for use within the framework of the vaccination plan. The Task Force shares the frustration expressed by numerous politicians about the delays in the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine.