It doesn’t matter how long ago you were vaccinated, at the moment you can enter everywhere without a booster vaccine with your corona admission ticket. There is no maximum period linked to the validity of a vaccination.
Valid for a maximum of 270 days
If it is up to the government, that will change as of 1 February. A vaccination certificate is then valid for a maximum of 270 days and a recovery certificate for another 180 days instead of a year. If you already have a proof of recovery, you will notice before 15 February that 6 months from the best-before date are automatically taken away.
In this way, the validity of the corona ticket is aligned with other European countries. Anyone who has not yet obtained a booster vaccine (and does not want to be tested for every tidbit), will have to do so after all.
How many people have been boosted (yet)?
In total, just over 8 million people have now been boosted. That equates to 56.6 percent of all adults. This means that there are about 2.9 million people who could get such a shot, who have not yet made it.
Turnout is highest (84 percent) among 76 to 80 year olds and lowest (31 percent) among 18 to 25 year olds, the youngest group to receive the booster shot.
The number of newly put booster shots decreases rapidly. Just over 460,000 people received such a vaccination last week, compared to more than 1.1 million a week earlier and almost 1.9 million the week before.
Source: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
After this publication, it rained reactions on our Facebook page yesterday afternoon. More than 2,500 came in, most of them critical. “So you now have to get an injection every 9 months, otherwise you can’t do anything anymore?” Chantal wonders. On Twitter, someone notes that he has been vaccinated, “but I have absolutely no intention of going on with this forever.” Microbiologist and NRC columnist Rosanne Hertzberger reacts cynically to the plan. “Remember when we once believed the QR code was a temporary and necessary containment?”
Maybe wise
Legally, emergency law specialist Adriaan Wierenga of the University of Groningen does not foresee any problem. Under certain conditions, the government may attach an expiration date to the corona admission ticket. “With the scientific knowledge of today, it might also be wiser to shorten those periods,” he says. “As long as the government gets the approval of a majority in the House of Representatives for this. It is a political-administrative consideration, just as the government could also opt for 2G instead of the current 3G system with the approval of the Houses.”
A judge will not just draw a line through this either, expects Professor of Law and Society Jan Brouwer of the University of Groningen. “The judge will wonder whether it is completely unthinkable what the government is doing here. Without wanting to take the seat of a virologist, I do not expect that to be the case here. At the moment, science has figured out approximately how long your immune system remains in a state of alert after an infection or vaccination.”
What is the demonstrable benefit of setting a best-before date? Leiden professor of crisis management Arjen Boin would like to know that. He is critical of the plan. “Nobody is literally forced to get vaccinated because of this, but at the very least it increases the pressure to get a booster shot. If you deny people the right to participate in normal social interaction, I think that comes very close to the away from coercion, even though there may be formal urgency.”
Similar to the rest of Europe
“If it served a clear purpose, I would understand if certain fundamental rights are curtailed for a while, but I don’t think that is the case now,” says Boin. “I don’t think it’s wise to just conform to the European standard. As a result, there is a situation in which, for example, French and German corona policy influences our regulations. That is not good for support. ‘something more’ is going on.”
Emergency law specialist Wierenga disagrees. He thinks that the Netherlands has chosen to align the period of validity with other European countries as ‘a very understandable position’. “Regulations must be practicable and enforceable. If Europe opts for a tight deadline and the Netherlands is sailing closer to the wind, that can be confusing. Apparently, the general European consensus is chosen.”
It seems certain that the House of Representatives will agree. “A large majority currently has no problems with the limitation of the validity of the corona admission ticket,” says political reporter Marieke van de Zilver. “You do notice that doubt is growing about the corona admission ticket as a means to fight the virus. There are still three bills to expand the corona admission ticket. The House still has to deal with it, but the cabinet will have to do its best to to convince the Chamber of the necessity of doing so.”