BRUSSELS (Brussels Morning) – Young people in Brussels are also now allowed to get the booster shot in the Flemish Periphery. Flemish Minister of Health Wouter Beke (CD&V) decided this on Thursday, after a whole day of may be or may not be. The practical details will be given on Friday between the Flemish Agency for Care and Health and the vaccination centres around the city.
Young people between twelve and seventeen years of age from Brussels will soon be able to register for the booster shot in the Flemish Periphery, the municipalities with facilities and the border municipalities. On Friday, the relevant vaccination centres will sit together with the Flemish Agency for Care and Health to work out the details, Beke’s spokeswoman reported. Then it will also become clear from what date the young people can register.
Flanders is currently the only region where young people can register for the booster shot. According to Beke, age would not be checked in the Flemish vaccination centres, but various vaccination centres in the Flemish periphery around Brussels indicated that they did not like that and would indeed refuse young people in Brussels.
Flemish minister for Brussels Benjamin Dalle, also from CD&V, did not agree with the attitude of the peripheral municipalities and stated that there was enough room and doses to give Brussels teenagers a third shot.
What of the distribution?
It is clear that there will be a registration system to distribute the extra doses of the vaccines. But at the vaccination centre in Dilbeek they don’t think things will go that fast. “There are about 35,000 young people in Brussels who are allowed to come, that means 1,500 doses per centre. In Flanders, we see that about ten percent of young people use the booster shot. That is about 150 extra vaccines per centre.”
A small survey by BRUZZ shows that many young people are not keen on getting the third shot, unless it is mandatory for them to be able to travel.