Vitalina Vieira works in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital in Portimão since its inception, twenty years ago, and he never thought to be the focus of so many film and photograph cameras. But this 57-year-old ICU operational assistant was this morning the first health professional to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in that hospital unit.
"It's an honor to be here," guaranteed Vitalina Vieira, after receiving the vaccine, which was given to her by nurse Tânia Gonçalves, under the watchful eyes of journalists.
As in the hospital of Faro, where, at the same time, Maria Clara Nogueira was vaccinated, here too, the “honor” of being the first was given to an operational assistant and not to a doctor or nurse. "I didn't expect to be the first, but it was special", for more "we are in contact with patients every day", he added.
For Vitalina Vieira, this “is the first step on this still long journey”, but it is, without a doubt, “a hope”, as he never tired of repeating.
Outside the room, in a hospital corridor, were other health professionals, all from the Emergency or Intensive Care services, waiting for their turn to get the vaccine.
Andrea Miali, also an operational assistant at the ICU at the hospital in Portimão, praised the fact that these professionals are the first: "we have to start somewhere, but it's good to start with those on the front line," he said, in remarks to Sul Informação.
Patrícia Gonçalves, her colleague at the UCI, recalled the daily battle that has been taking place in this service since March, against Covid-19: «given the service we are in, complicated situations are already usual, but Covid brought us different situations» .
Although the vaccine represents a “hope”, it is not a reason to let down one's guard, as Andreia Miali insisted: “We have to take the vaccine, but we will have to continue to be careful. The only hope the vaccine gives us is that if we are infected, the virus will not affect us so severely». Relaxing care and prevention measures is not, he added.
Isilda Gomes, mayor of Portimão, who was also attending the moment of the first vaccination at the city hospital, said that «it is a very happy day for the Algarve, for Portimão, for Faro». This "was the expected day, the day we all yearned for", stressed the mayor, in an interview with Sul Informação.
“The Government made a good decision, to vaccinate those who take care of us first, and then it will continue to homes, where there are very vulnerable people. Things are going much better than expected, because nobody imagined that before January there were already so many people to be vaccinated», stressed Isilda Gomes.
Physician Ana Castro, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hospital and University Center of the Algarve (CHUA), told our newspaper that, in this first phase, 2400 CHUA professionals will be vaccinated, of which «now the first 900», 300 in the unit of Portimão, 600 in the Faro.
Fortunately, he added, “there was no refusal by any health professional. There are professionals who are not going to do vaccination now, but this is for clinical indication».
Bearing in mind that "usually" hospitals do not carry out vaccinations, organizing all of this is a different logistical operation", which went off without problems because "we organized ourselves in this direction", added Ana Castro.
Regarding the choice of operational assistants to be the first to be vaccinated at CHUA, the administrator explained that “they are the first on the front line, they are the ones who ensure that the safety and hygiene conditions are ensured so that we can treat the patients. those who have the first contact with the sick, are therefore more exposed, so we had no way not to start with them».
Jorge Botelho, the secretary of state who is the Algarve's coordinator of the fight against the pandemic, said that "the immediate step ahead" in this operation is to vaccinate users and employees of nursing homes. Not wanting to commit to a date, the government official pointed to "the first days of January" to start this vaccination in the Residential Structures for the Elderly. It will be, he assured, "as soon as possible".
About incident that yesterday opposed PSP and GNR, in Évora, regarding jurisdiction over the transport of vaccines, the secretary of state only said that "all people know the competences they have to assume", ensuring that "the coordination of hospitals is being done very well, each one knows what he has to do, so that this can be done with efficiency, simplicity and, above all, on time».
In the government's view, proof that everything is going smoothly is that «these vaccines that are here today arrived in Portugal yesterday morning and today, a few hours later, they are already being administered in Portimão».
A little late, as he came from Évora, where he witnessed the start of vaccination at the local hospital, the Deputy Secretary of State and Health also visited the CHUA unit in Portimão, as well as the city's Health Centre.
In Évora, answering journalists' questions, António Lacerda Sales had already devalued the incidents between GNR and PSP in the transport of vaccines. "I think that no image tarnishes what has, in fact, been very important" in this process, "which is the light at the end of the tunnel that is the vaccine and, in this particular case, the vaccine for our health professionals", he said. the Secretary of State.
Meanwhile, at the hospital in Portimão, as soon as she had been vaccinated, Vitalina Vieira thanked nurse Tânia, telling her: "It didn't hurt at all!" On January 20, Vitalina and all the health professionals who are currently being vaccinated will return to receive the second dose. "It's a hope, a hope!"
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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