People have been subjected to waits of up to three hours at the Heysel vaccination centre today after invites were sent to local authorities asking them to come without an appointment.
Police services, shelter staff, social assistance and workers with people with disabilities have taken up the call - and have to be registered on spot in a time-consuming process.
The news first broke after a citizen told RTBF that the lines had reached such a length, in stark contrast to the situation two weeks ago which saw the centre closed for a day due to various logistical problems.
"At the moment, there is still a two-hour queue. The problem is that there are several profiles of people coming to the centre. There are those who have an appointment online and it's going fast," Emin Luka, operational director of Brussels Expo, confirmed to RTBF.
Related News
- 'Illegal': Brussels vaccination centre criticised for lack of Dutch-speaking staff
- Tech fault leaves vaccination centres struggling to book second doses
Problems, however, are arising from people without an appointment. "The aim was to fill in the blanks, but the problem was that there were a lot of people and they had to be registered in the computer system with a whole series of data. This operation takes several minutes and causes a huge queue," Luka explained. "We manage to manage the flow of people who have made an appointment, but once you add those who don't have an appointment, it's unmanageable."
While this was already a problem yesterday - made worse by tech issues - today, extra steps have been taken to allow registration for future appointments on-site without additional waiting times. Brussels Expo is calling on local authority staff to register, and instead to call and book on 02/214.19.19.
The Brussels Times
