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“Today has been a day of trust and hope. We had planned something ambitious and difficult: vaccinate 2,125 professionals [de saúde]. And after a long day, we managed to vaccinate 2,125 professionals (…). This does not force us to reduce the security of the process. We are going and we all have to maintain the security standards that are necessary to meet the immunity objective that motivates us all, ”said Fernando Araújo.
As a balance, but also an appeal, the president of the board of directors of the CHUSJ -who was speaking with journalists next to the chair where this morning he received the vaccine-, the infectious doctor António Sarmento, the first Portuguese to be vaccinated against covid-19. – described that “no serious adverse reactions have been reported” and only “six or seven cases of mild reactions”.
“This vaccine is safe. We are confident. Today was a happy day, a day in which we feel that we are winning the war against this virus, ”Fernando Araújo stressed.
Today, more than 2,000 doctors, nurses, operative assistants and diagnostic and therapeutic technicians from the services referred by the General Directorate of Health (DGS) in that hospital were vaccinated at the São João Hospital, in Porto.
This number corresponds to approximately 30% of the total universe of CHUSJ healthcare professionals and “approximately half” of the number of people eligible to be considered a “priority group”.
Fernando Araújo said that the hospital will now prepare the operation for the second dose, scheduled for January 17, also on Sunday, and was “confident” that the rest of the hospital population will have access to the vaccine “as soon as possible” .
“We hope it will be very soon. Today your minister [da Saúde] He said exactly that and exactly in this place where we are. He said that very soon we will have vaccines to vaccinate all the professionals who want it, ”said the official.
This is because, recognized the president of the board of directors, “the pressure on the hospital will continue”, since “there may be an increase in incidence, possibly the result of greater social contact at that time. [de Natal]”.
“We are prepared for all eventualities. I think the worst is over, ”he said.
When asked if the CHUSJ is available to “lend” facilities for eventual vaccination “mega-operations” that are similar, but dedicated to the community in general, Fernando Araújo was adamant in answering: “The hospital belongs to everyone. We are available for what the NHS [Serviço Nacional de Saúde] need and ask the Ministry of Health. Today has been a test that has been carried out successfully ”.
While speaking to the press, Fernando Araújo was flanked by the director of Pharmaceutical Services, Pedro Soares, the director of the Outpatient Center, Xavier Barreto, the director of the Autonomous Unit of Emergency Management and Intensive Care of the Hospital de São João, Nelson Pereira , the CHUSJ Clinic director, Maria João Baptista, the director of the Occupational Health Service, Pedro Norton, the supervising nurse, Paula Costa, as well as the director of the IT Management and Technology Center, Information and Communication Systems Service, Maria João Campos.
Fernando Araújo thanked “the enormous effort” to all the professionals who were involved in the operation, in a total of more than a hundred, listing service by service, without forgetting the role of volunteers.
The covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 1.7 million deaths worldwide since December last year, including 6,556 in Portugal.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
Like other European Union countries, in Portugal the vaccine is optional, free and universal, and is provided by the National Health Service.
Professionals from the university hospital centers of Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon North and Lisbon Central were the first to be vaccinated.
