The first coronavirus vaccination centre in the Brussels Region will open on 2 February at Pacheco, the Joint Community Commission (Cocom) announced on Wednesday.
"Others are in preparation and can open as soon as we have the vaccines available,” Cocom said, adding that they would communicate more on the subject in the coming days.
The vaccination centre at the Heysel site was also initially set to open next week, but due to a lack of available vaccines, it is now scheduled to open in mid-February, along with the centres of Forest and Schaerbeek, Inge Neven of the Brussels health inspection said according to VRT NWS.
In mid-January, Brussels Health Minister Alain Maron said that Brussels would begin a phased opening of 10 centres between then and March.
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Around 12,718 elderly people live in the 137 Brussels nursing homes, plus 8 nursing homes in Brussels that are dependent on the Flemish government. As far as vaccination is concerned, about 86% of the residents (representing 10,951 people) and 28% of the staff (representing 2,657 people) have received the first dose of the vaccine, Cocom said in a press release.
In addition, 60 residents and 10 members of staff at the Notre Dame de Stockel rest and care home, the first to have benefited from the vaccine, received their second dose and are therefore fully vaccinated. This week, all those vaccinated during the week of January 5 will also be vaccinated with the second dose.
In Brussels hospitals, 8,300 doses were made available last week for priority groups, i.e. emergency rooms, Covid units and intensive care units, and for other groups in contact with Covid patients if any doses remain.
Since then, 2,356 healthcare workers have already received the first dose of the vaccine (including 1,110 Moderna and 1,246 for Pfizer). As far as Iris Sud Hospitals are concerned, some 900 vaccines have already been administered to staff during this pilot phase.
A total of 16,074 people have thus been vaccinated in Brussels, which represents 1.3% of the Brussels population, Cocom assures. These figures from 23 January diverge from those communicated by Sciansano.
"A certain number of people are vaccinated in Brussels, where their workplace is located, even though they live outside the Region. Moreover, it is possible that institutions are not reporting at the same speed in VaccinNet, the vaccine registration platform, as they do in Cocom", the press release said.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
