The director-general of Health appealed today, 31 December, to parents to self-schedule the vaccination of their children between 6 and 9 January, a period in which the Covid-19 vaccination centers will be dedicated to children, to avoid unnecessary waiting and anxiety .
During this period, which begins on Twelfth Night, all vaccination centers will be "entirely dedicated to vaccinating children between 5 and 11 years old", to be "a controlled process of normal affluence" to these spaces, said Graça Freitas , in statements to the Lusa agency.
On New Year's Eve, the Director-General of Health wanted to leave a message to the parents or relatives of the children to vaccinate them, emphasizing that «to vaccinate is to protect».
"I really want to remind parents that the confidence they have had in vaccination in Portugal and in the recommendations that we have made about vaccination has been a privilege for tens of years," he said.
Graça Freitas noted that in Portugal almost all children, adults and young people are vaccinated, "regardless of their characteristics, social status, nationality", a strategy that has given "good results" because most diseases affect them. which were vaccinated were eliminated in the country.
"We don't even have cases, except for importation, and when we don't eliminate, we control the minimum, minimum number of cases", he said, stressing that this "is a good example" of the benefits of vaccination.
According to the Director-General of Health, vaccination “has many advantages for oneself”, because it prevents the disease, and natural infection by the virus is always a phenomenon that cannot be controlled.
“We never know who is going to have a complication, who can go to the hospital, it's always unknown. If we have a vaccine that simulates the natural infection, but that controls the risks and reactions, then let's use that vaccine», he stressed.
Graça Freitas reaffirmed that the vaccine against Covid-19 "is effective, safe and has quality", having already given "evidence of this", thus reinforcing the appeal to parents to adhere to the vaccination process and make the self-scheduling, "for there should be some control in the attendance to the vaccination centers, without unnecessary waiting, without unnecessary anxiety”.
According to Graça Freitas, there are already parents doing the self-scheduling, but the call is for them to “do it even more” because there is enough capacity and vaccines to vaccinate all children from 5 to 11 years old.
"The processes are very friendly, the nurses and all the staff who are there [in the vaccination centers] are extraordinary, they manage to treat the children with great delicacy and humanization," he commented.
On the other hand, he said, "the injection doesn't hurt, the adverse reactions are very rare and mild and self-limited."
“It's a safe process and an effective process and it's a process that provides protection against a disease that despite everything for some people can be serious, which we don't want at all. What we want is for people to protect themselves», concluded Graça Freitas.
This will be the second period dedicated exclusively to the vaccination of minors, after more than 95 children between 9 and 11 years old have received the first dose of the pediatric vaccine from Pfizer on the weekend of the 18th and 19th of this month.
According to the planning of the task force, the second dose vaccination for children under 12 years of age should take place between February 5th and March 13th.
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