Hospitals are already working hard to vaccinate their own care workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the West Nile Virus in 2020 show that so-called emerging zoonoses pose a risk to the Netherlands.

As of today, people born in 1939 or before can schedule an appointment for a COVID-19 booster vaccination with the Municipal Public Health Services (GGDs).

The first invitations to make an appointment for a COVID-19 booster vaccination will be received from 18 November on. The invitation is for people aged 80 years and older.

The chance that a fully vaccinated person with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 will be admitted to hospital is 17 times lower than for a non-vaccinated person. The chance of ICU admission for a fully vaccinated person is 33 times lower.

From 16 December 2019, pregnant women in the Netherlands will be offered the 22-week vaccination. With this vaccination, a pregnant woman protects her child and herself against whooping cough.

The focus of our annual report State of Zoonotic Diseases 2018 is prevention, with the emphasis on the production chains of foods of animal origin.

In the first six months of 2019, the number of notified meningococcal serogroup W (MenW) disease cases decreased in almost all age groups, after a continuous increase since 2015.