Around 945,000 adults in Belgium have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine to date, according to the vaccination task force.
In total, 1,380,000 doses had been administered in Belgium as of 19 March, according to figures updated on Saturday.
"10.5% of the population over 18 years of age has received the first dose of a vaccine. The second dose was administered to around 437,000 people, around 4.8% of the adult population,” said Sabine Stordeur of the Vaccination Task Force.
This week, Flanders expects to administer 154,257 doses of a vaccine, around 20,000 more than in the previous week, of which most will be given in vaccination centres, followed by hospitals and community care institutions.
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Belgium’s vaccination rollout has been heavily impacted by the delayed and reduced deliveries from Moderna and AstraZeneca, which recently announced it would be delivering 200,000 fewer doses to Belgium in March.
The task force hopes to compensate for these deliveries with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine by mid-April, of which Belgium is expecting to receive 1.4 million doses in the second quarter, Dirk Ramaekers, the head of the task force, told L’Echo.
Excluding these deliveries, officials estimate that Belgium will have received 3.7 million vaccines by the end of April.
The task force has reportedly received no confirmation regarding the quantity of doses that will be delivered to Belgium by AstraZeneca or Moderna in April, adding that only Pfizer seems to be sticking to a timetable, with 1.4 million doses planned between 22 March and 26 April.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
