The 25 regional health boards are closing at least 73 vaccination locations in the coming weeks, replacing them by mobile units and pop-up locations, the AD reported on Wednesday.

Even though some 2.8 million people over the age of 12 have not yet had a single vaccination, the need for the large vaccination centres which can process thousands of people a day is winding down, the paper said.

The most recent figures from the government’s coronavirus dashboard show that over 60% of 15 million people over the age of 12 in the Netherlands are now fully protected against coronavirus.

Some 100,000 people a day are currently being vaccinated, compared with 200,000 a day in early June, and most of these are second doses, the AD said.

Thirteen of the 14 health board vaccination locations in the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region will have been closed by the end of September, and six have already closed since July.

In Brabant 11 out of 14 centres will be closed in the coming month or so, and Friesland will shut four of its eight vaccination centres in two weeks.

Low rate

Meanwhile, the Volkskrant reports that some, but not all, local health boards are now focusing their attention on getting people in areas where the vaccination rate is low to have an jab after all.

Some are setting up pop-up locations in community centres, religious centres or at markets in an effort to attract doubters and those who have not yet made an appointment.

The results of these efforts are encouraging, the paper said, with thousands of people being vaccinated who might otherwise not have shown up for a jab.

Religion

The Friesland health board, for example, has vaccinated 1,500 people since June 2 using mobile centres, while the Flevoland, Gelderland Noord-Oost, Gelderland-Zuid and Groningen health boards will start such a programme in September.

Tailor-made solutions with local authorities allow the health boards to target their efforts where they are most needed. In the four big cities, for example, some areas with large immigrant communities have had a low take-up rate so far but The Hague’s health board has carried out hundreds of vaccinations at a Ghanese church and a Chinese restaurant, a spokesman told the paper.

Areas with a high percentage of strict Protestants also often have low take-up rates. The former island of Urk, for example, has the lowest take up in the country, with less than 40% of its population have had at least one dose of vaccine.

Third dose

Germany and Israel have already agreed that their more vulnerable citizens should have a booster third jab, but the Dutch government has not yet taken a decision.

Should the Outbreak Management Team recommend a third dose, health minister Hugo de Jonge said he is not afraid that there will be a sudden lack of capacity.

‘We are working together with the health boards on different scenarios to allow a speed scale-up,’ a spokesman for the minister told the AD. ‘At the moment, it would be a waste of money to keep the big vaccination halls open.’