WILLEMSTAD - Three thousand people were given a booster shot on December 26. Most shots were taken at the Curaçao Sports Center (SDK). This is the second injection location since yesterday. Two thousand people were helped there. The vaccination team at the outpatient clinic of the Sint Elisabeth Hospital (Sehos) administered a thousand booster shots yesterday.
Already early in the morning, large queues formed at both injection sites. According to the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature (GMN), this shows that the community wants to fight the outbreak of the omicron variant. A booster is necessary if the protective effect of the first series of vaccines decreases too much after a while. Or when the vaccinations appear to protect less well against new variants of a virus, such as the omicron variant.
The injection sites were not prepared for the crowds. People who showed up at the injection locations without an appointment (walk-ins) stood in line for people with an appointment and in line for people over sixty. The rain made the chaos worse. Those who had to wait took shelter under the tent, so that there was no longer any distinction between the different rows and the walk-ins mingled with those who had appointments.
At 11 o'clock in the morning, the vaccination team stopped the walk-ins. Nevertheless, the waiting time increased to 2.5 hours. As of today, the three rows will be strictly separated, the GMN ministry said.