Vaccine Queue Calculator for the Netherlands

Note: The vaccination figures for this calculator are no longer being updated. Last update: 11 March 2011.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every country in the world, changing all of our lives. In the Netherlands, the number of casualties has already exceeded 15.000, not to mention the country's economy loss. We all think this virus has been our guest for way too long - but what can we do about it? The most effective way to battle this kind of enemy is to create a vaccine against it 💉. Multiple companies have been in a race since COVID-19 was discovered to do just that, and some of them eventually succeeded 💪.

Yes, we finally have a defence against COVID-19!

Since there are 17.280.000 people in the Netherlands, not everybody can get vaccinated immediately. It raises a whole load of new questions:

• Who will be first in the queue to get the vaccine?
• When are you likely to be offered it?

We created this calculator to deliver the answers to both of these crucial questions. The vaccine queue calculator for the Netherlands will tell you when you can expect your vaccine.

We've based our vaccine queue calculator on the government's projections, as well as the current stats and the likely rate of vaccination.

It's great that we now have COVID vaccines that have been approved for general use. However, that's not the end of the COVID story just yet. Millions of doses of vaccines now have to be produced and injected into the arms of people. That is one massive manufacturing, logistical, and time-consuming task for everyone involved. It is all going to take time. See the vaccine production calculator to learn more.

The Dutch government has its own vaccination strategy. Unlike many other countries, the plan is based on dates they preset for each group, many of which overlap. Let's take a look at the groups mentioned¹:

For health and care workers:

1. Staff on COVID wards and ambulance crews
2. Health and care workers in nursing homes and small-scale residential homes
3. Family doctors and their staff
4. Health and care workers in specialist inpatient rehabilitation
5. Disability care workers
6. Health and care workers in mental healthcare and mental health crisis care
7. Homecare and social support (WMO) workers
8. Health and care workers financed from a personal budget (PGB)
9. All other health and care workers

For people outside of healthcare:

1. Nursing home residents and residents of care homes for people with intellectual disabilities
2. People living in small-scale residential homes and residential care homes for people with intellectual disabilities
3. People aged 65 and over who live at home and can travel to the vaccination centre (from oldest to youngest)²
4. People aged 60-64 who live at home and can travel to their doctor's office (from oldest to youngest)
5. Mental healthcare inpatients
6. People aged 65 and over who live at home and are unable to travel to a vaccination centre or their doctor's office (from oldest to youngest)²
7. People aged 18-59 at high medical risk³
8. People aged 18-59 with certain medical conditions⁴
9. People aged 50-59, followed by those aged 18-49 who do not have certain medical conditions (from oldest to youngest)²

Back to calculator

¹) The above groups don't apply to the residents of the Carribean islands. On Bonaire, Curaçao, Aruba, and St Maarten, healthcare workers are to be vaccinated first, followed by people above 60, ending with those between 18 and 59 years of age. On St Eustatius and Saba, the whole population is to be vaccinated simultaneously.

²) In 5-year age groups.

³) See the next section.

⁴) See the next section.

Group 7

A full list of conditions that qualify you for Group 7 is not yet published. However, the authorities have mentioned:

• chronic respiratory or pulmonary problems;
• Down's syndrome; or
• obesity (BMI > 40). To check if you qualify, visit our BMI calculator.

Group 8

As for Group 8, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports has published a list of conditions that qualify you for this group:

• all recent solid cancers (or recent cancer treatments);
• chronic heart patients;
• diabetes;
• kidney disease (people who need dialysis or are waiting for a kidney transplant);
• people less resistant to infection (e.g., because of an autoimmune disease, an organ transplant, stem cell transplant, a blood disease);
• people with an HIV infection; and
• people with serious liver disease.

Back to calculator

Follow these steps to calculate when you can expect your COVID vaccine. The first section is all about you:

1. Enter your age in years. Generally, the older you are, the sooner you'll be called up to have the vaccine.
2. Do you live on one of the Carribean islands? The vaccination strategy for this region differs from the one for the rest of the country.
3. Say whether you live in a care home or in a institutionalized care facility. If everyone in such places is vaccinated, that will allow relatives to visit with decreased risk to the residents.
4. Are you pregnant? If the answer is yes, please consult your doctor. There is insufficient evidence to recommend the routine use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy.
5. Are you a healthcare worker (e.g., nurse, doctor, etc.)? If so, specify the sector you work in. In general, the more exposure to the virus you have, the sooner you'll be protected.
6. Have you got one of the underlying health conditions mentioned above?

You will then see a time range of when you can expect the vaccine. You can also compare between the government projection of when they hope to vaccinate the whole population and the time it would take to achieve it with the current vaccination rate. In the latter, we base these figures on the number of vaccines administered in the last seven days and a default uptake rate of 75% (not everyone who is offered the vaccine will accept it). If you want to change these values, you can do it in the Rollout of vaccines section.

We know that waiting to get the vaccine can be frustrating. However, by prioritising those people that are most at risk of hospitalisation and death, we should quickly be able to save lives with this fantastic new weapon against the virus.

A COVID-19 vaccination is not recommended to children under 18 years old 👶👦👧

It shouldn't surprise or raise any doubts, since new drugs are usually tested on adults first. However, as more studies are carried out, these contraindications might change.

COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and passed all their safety tests. However, as with any approved drug on the market, you may experience side effects. Generally, though, the risk of side effects is much smaller than the possible consequences of a nasty COVID-19 infection.

These side effects include pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever. Some people might also have injection site swelling and redness, and nausea. Very rarely people feel unwell and have enlarged lymph nodes.

Nearly all COVID-19 vaccines approved or under development need two shots to be effective. The doses need to be around 3 to 12 weeks apart, depending on the vaccine. For example, you need to have the two Pfizer/BioNTech shots 21 days apart, while the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine can be up to 12 weeks apart.

Currently, clinical trials have not yet provided data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women. At the same time, there is no information on contraindications to the vaccination during pregnancy. According to the CDC, women who are pregnant and part of a group recommended to receive COVID-19 vaccine (e.g. healthcare personnel) may choose to be vaccinated.

🤰 The decision to vaccinate should be made by the pregnant woman, after clarification of possible doubts with the doctor.

👶 There is no need to interrupt or avoid the initiation of breastfeeding by women who have received COVID-19 vaccine.

Women planning to become pregnant in the near future are advised to take the vaccination. The vaccine has not been shown to affect fertility.

Yes, you need to wear a mask. At this stage, it is still unclear whether the current vaccine will also prevent the transmission of the virus to people around you. It is similar to the current situation where people have COVID-19 but suffer no symptoms. However, they are still able to transmit it to others. It may be only until a good majority of people have been vaccinated that restrictions to our daily lives are lifted.

For flu, experts say the herd immunity should be achieved when around 70% of population gets vaccinated, so that is the current working theory for COVID-19.

Yes. If you have had COVID-19, then your body will have some natural immunity to it, preventing you from suffering from it again. However, some early evidence suggests this natural immunity might not last very long. While we also don't know precisely how long the vaccine's protection lasts, it could be better than your natural immunity. It will undoubtedly extend the time you are resistant to COVID-19.

Certainly not at the moment, but eventually, yes. Pfizer alone plans to produce 1.3 billion doses of its vaccine in 2021. As further vaccines are approved and manufactured, more supply will come on stream to meet the demand around the world.

We try our best to make our Omni Calculators as precise and reliable as possible. However, this tool can never replace a professional doctor's assessment. Consult your doctor before taking the vaccine and in case of any doubt.

11 March 2021

• Adjusted the calculator section to focus on the government projections and the time to vaccinate the whole population.

8 March 2021

• Updated the calculator according to the recently published updated vaccination strategy; check the priority list for more information.

12 February 2021

• People with obesity, Down's syndrome, or chronic respiratory diseases given higher priority; check the priority list for more information.