[ad_1]
In January the latest chapter of this pandemic may begin. Francisco Ramos, coordinator of the working group created for the Covid-19 vaccination plan, announced this Thursday that “The information that exists today on the process gives us enough security to say that in January we will begin to vaccinate”. The Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should be the first to arrive in Portugal. It all depends on a decision of the European Medicines Agency.
According to the coordinator of the working group, the first group of priority groups refers to people aged 50 years and over with pre-existing conditions, such as heart failure, coronary heart disease, kidney failure and chronic respiratory disease with venous support.tilatory.
This first phase of vaccination will also include professionals and residents of nursing homes or long-term care units; health professionals directly involved in patient care and professionals from the armed forces, security forces and critical services.
In total, in this first phase, it is estimated that 950 thousand people will be vaccinatedThe group of households being 250,000, 400,000 people over 50 and associated comorbidities, and 300,000 professionals. Francisco Ramos says that in an optimistic scenario, this priority group will be vaccinated between January and February, but the most likely scenario extends until March.
The second phase comprises two groups: people aged 65 and over with or without pathologies (who have not been vaccinated in the previous phase) and citizens between 50 and 64 years with at least one of the following pathologies: Diabetes, malignancy, chronic kidney disease, liver failure, obesity, high blood pressure and other pathologies that can be defined later.
This group includes 2.7 million people and this vaccination phase can end in June or July, Francisco Ramos points out.
All other people will be included in a third phase of vaccination. Francisco Ramos emphasizes that there is a caveat: “if for any reason the vaccination rate is slower than the base scenario, of course, we will have to create new priority groups and define a third group.”
Where will the vaccines be distributed?
Vaccines will be available and administered in health centers, nursing homes, and continuing care units.
The coordinator of the working group for the vaccination plan against Covid-19 confirmed that There will be 1,200 vaccination points in health centers throughout the country. “These points will be used by the 400,000 Portuguese belonging to the identified risk group,” said Francisco Ramos. Residents and professionals in nursing homes and long-term care inpatients can be vaccinated at the institutions themselves.
A “system of calls” will be created to schedule vaccinations, so that “it is the health services that identify who belongs to the risk groups. This will be done based on the information available in health centers and, knowing that there are A number of Portuguese who do not use them, there will be an alternative that these people can use to have access to the vaccine in health centers ”, Francisco Ramos explained.
“In the subsequent phases, we still cannot have a detailed plan. An expansion of the network of vaccination points will be necessary, but with criteria to be defined, according to the schedule and rhythm of vaccine supply ”, concluded the coordinator of the working group.
Universal, free and optional
As the Minister of Health had already announced, António Costa reiterated that Vaccination will be optional, free and distributed to the entire population ”.
At the end of the session, the Prime Minister announced that the vaccination plan presented “is clear and transparent” regarding the priority criteria in the administration of the vaccine.
For António Costa, the vaccine is “a light at the end of the tunnel”, but warns that “the tunnel is still very long and quite painful”, explaining that the 22 million doses of vaccines acquired by Portugal will not be available from day one and will arrive throughout the year 2021.
“We have good reasons to be confident in success. But this was the easy part. The difficulties begin here,” said António Costa, highlighting that vaccination will be a difficult process, with external “weightlessness”, but also internal difficulties. .
“These difficulties will increase. It will undoubtedly be easier in the first weeks when we have few doses and when the universe of receptors of the first phase is still limited. It will surely be much more demanding since the doses arrive in larger quantities and the universe to be vaccinated is also more extensive “, Costa explained, recalling that” if the European Medical Agency does not approve the vaccine in January, we will not have a single dose. ” .
“We are certainly in a better position today than last week and much better than six months ago.”concluded the Prime Minister.
