Vaccination of health professionals with the third dose of the covid-19 vaccine will start next Monday, the Assistant Secretary of State and Health announced today,
According to António Lacerda Sales, the vaccines are being distributed today by the country's health institutions.
"From the 15th of the month, vaccines will begin to be administered to health professionals", announced the official on the sidelines of the ceremony of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Insulin, an initiative of the Portuguese Society of Diabetology.
The medical unions and the Medical Association had already appealed to the Government to administer the third dose of the vaccine to health professionals, noting that they were among the first to be vaccinated in late December 2020 and in January this year.
Taking stock of the flu vaccination and the third dose of the covid-19 vaccine, António Lacerda Sales stated that, probably, today or Friday the value of one million flu vaccines and 500 thousand doses of vaccines will be reached of the third takes against covid-19.
Regarding the joint taking of the two vaccines, he added that they will be around 300 thousand.
"There is a strategic planning effort here by the coordination nucleus to bring together all these processes" which are "complex processes", said the official, explaining that people can always choose to take one or both vaccines.
Lacerda Sales explained that the space that was standardized for 14 days between taking the flu vaccine and boosting the covid may decrease with the new norm from the General Directorate of Health.
"If the person understands that after five or six days they want to be vaccinated with one or another vaccine, they can be vaccinated," he said.
The Deputy Secretary of State and Health reinforces that the concern at this time is to vaccinate the older age groups.
To reach this population, the health authorities asked local authorities for help, namely parish councils through ANAFRE, to locate elderly people who are “in more isolated situations, more alone and who are not aware of this phenomenon”.
The request is for them to be able to identify them and obtain transport so that they can travel to the vaccination centers and give them the respective guidelines.
“Once again we have this extraordinary collaboration, as it was in the first phase with the local authorities”, he said, considering “fundamental in this case” the support of the local authorities.
According to the weekly DGS report, released on Wednesday, 2 people are fully vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-8.904.253 virus, 18.471 more than last week, and 9.039.364 have already received a dose, which represents over 12.609 vaccinated.
Covid-19 has already killed In Portugal, since March 2020, 18.222 people and 1.100.961 cases of infection were recorded, according to data from the Directorate-General for Health.
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