The Health Council recommends offering people over 60, healthcare workers and risk groups a corona shot every autumn. That made the independent advisory body Wednesday known. It concerns about four million people who would receive an injection every year, the council estimates. The corona shot could then be administered in combination with a possible flu shot.
The Health Council points out that the corona virus is still causing deaths and hospital admissions. The Health Council advises the cabinet to review the vaccination program annually, “because it is still unclear how Covid-19 will develop further”.
In doing so, the cabinet must take into account ‘various scenarios, from very mild to very serious’. The council points out that in 2022, “again and again new waves of infection” were caused by new virus variants. That may happen again in the future.
The coronavirus has been considered endemic in the Netherlands since March. The last measures were also abolished at that time, and corona has since been regarded as one of many respiratory infections. At the time, the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) wrote that “people with respiratory complaints should also realize that they may be contagious and some may become seriously ill.” In other words: corona is no longer socially disruptive, but caution is still important.