Belgium reached a new milestone in its vaccination campaign on Monday, as over eight million people already received their first dose, according to the latest figures by the Sciensano national health institute.
In total, 83.5% of the adult population in Belgium received their first dose, which comes down to 69.8% of the entire Belgian population.
Additionally, nearly seven million (6,826,579) people have already been fully vaccinated, which is 73.4% of the adult population in Belgium, or 59.3% of the entire population.
Additionally, the number of administered shots is likely even higher, as those administered in the Brussels-Capital Region and some large vaccination centres in Flanders between 30 July and 1 August are missing on Monday, due to a delay in data transfer, according to Sciensano.
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In Flanders, 90% of the adult population has received a first dose, compared to 78% in Wallonia. Brussels is a bit behind in the vaccination campaign, as 61% of its population received a first shot.
Brussels is using several information campaigns to inform people through all kinds of social media, posters and campaigns running in the municipalities, Inge Neven of the Brussels Health Inspectorate said on Flemish radio last week.
There are several reasons why so few people got their jab, one of which is that Brussels is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with residents of 184 different nationalities and with many different cultures.
Partly due to that large number of different nationalities, young people are not always easy to reach through regular government communication and media.
That is also why the Brussels government is working with religious leaders, as well as informal leaders, to better reach certain population groups in the region.
