Just over 80% of adults in Flanders have received a booster coronavirus vaccine, the Flemish Care and Health Agency announced on Wednesday.
In total, 4,338,984 people in Flanders received a booster vaccine, which equates to 65% of Flemish residents. But among adults the figure is 80%.
"They have strengthened their protection against Covid-19. A dam against the worst effects of the Omicron wave," the agency stated on Twitter.
Intussen hebben 80% van de mensen in Vlaanderen hun boosterprik ?gaan halen en zo hun bescherming tegen COVID-19 versterkt. Een dam tegen de ergste gevolgen van de Omicron-golf ?. pic.twitter.com/cE4Mhnq4CC
— Zorg en Gezondheid (@ZorgVlaanderen) February 2, 2022
There is a fairly even distribution of booster uptake across the Flanders provinces: West Flanders leads with a rate of 84.1%, followed by East Flanders (81.4%), Limburg (80.2%), Flemish Brabant (78.9%) and finally Antwerp (77.4%).
Next week, another 70,000 booster doses are planned, followed by roughly 30,000 the week after, the Agency said.
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The booster rate is noticeably higher in Flanders than in the rest of the country – just 62% of adults in Wallonia have received their booster, and only 42% of those in the Brussels-Capital Region, according to the latest figures by the Sciensano national health institute.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Inge Neven (head of the Brussels health inspectorate) stressed that this is 42% of the entire adult population in Brussels, not only those eligible for a booster dose.
If the percentage of boostered people is calculated in terms of those who are fully vaccinated, 56% of adults who are eligible for a booster already received one.
"So, the numbers continue to rise but the speed of the campaign is slowing a little, as is also the case in the other regions," Neven said.
