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Vaccination against covid-19 will begin earlier than expected, the Health Minister announced on Thursday after a meeting to update the national strategy. The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, expected to be approved early next week, will be delivered to healthcare professionals who are at the forefront in the fight against the pandemic.
“At this time, the forecast for the attribution of opinion [por parte da Agência Europeia do medicamento à vacina da Pfizer] It is scheduled for December 21 and the authorization for introduction to the market is scheduled for December 23, “said Marta Temido, adding that according to the pharmacist the first doses can arrive in Portugal on December 26” and that we can start vaccinating between December 27 and 29 ”.
A first step towards a long-awaited process, but one that will start with a lower number of doses than originally planned, after the company announced a 20% reduction in available doses. In total, 312,975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be delivered by the end of January. The first batch to arrive in the country will have 9,750 doses, another 303,225 doses are expected to arrive in early January, starting on the 4th.
As for the first vaccines, and because they are a small number, there was stratification among the priority groups that had already been defined by the Technical Commission for Vaccination Against Covid-19. “We are finalizing the selection process of the group that will be vaccinated in the first days. It will be focused on the component of health professionals, insofar as they are the first-line professionals who can help better protect the rest, ”said Marta Temido.
“It is stipulated that they target health professionals who were involved in the services to combat covid,” said the minister, explaining that in this first phase they are identifying “the health professionals most subject to the risk of contracting the illness”.
“This stratification is being carried out by the General Directorate of Health and follows the exposure criteria: intensive care units, emergency, care for community respiratory covid patients [centros de saúde] and hospital. Professionals who work in units where there is a greater risk of aerosol release and contacts with patients infected by covid ”, exemplified Marta Temido, recalling that“ a week later [de vacinação] will be expanded ”.
Support lines
In this sense, the minister assured that the priorities that were clinically defined will be respected. And what was defined, he recalled, “this first phase would include professionals of residential structures for the elderly, health professionals, residents of these structures for the elderly and then people who, with more than 50 years, they agglutinate one or more diverse pathologies ”. “This definition of priority groups remains,” he guaranteed.
Asked about the possible adverse reactions that may occur, in a similar way to what has happened in countries where the vaccine is already being administered, Marta Temido are creating adequate mechanisms for its registration “The concern before the vaccine is administered is that the health professional that the administration can collect from the vaccinated person health information that allows to vaccinate safely ”, he explained.
The General Directorate of Health is also preparing a vaccination manual that will be published no later than next Sunday and support lines will be created that should be available in January to clarify doubts. “What we want is for this process to be carried out, creating the greatest possible peace of mind for users. Shared Services of the Ministry of Health is developing contact mechanisms with users to facilitate this process and in the first days of January we estimate that these instruments will be available ”.
“Regarding communication issues and the availability of a single place, that is, a website, to support the vaccination process and also be a relationship interface with those who seek information, this is one of the communication aspects that it is being addressed and it will be taken care of, ”he also said.
More vaccination sites
According to the planned schedule, it is expected that by the end of the first quarter of next year just over 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will reach Portugal. By then, the Government also has doses of Moderna’s vaccine, whose opinion from the European Medicines Agency is expected shortly.
For now, and given the limited number of doses that will arrive, vaccination will focus on health centers as planned. But in the future, as coordinator of the workgroup Francisco Ramos, vaccination sites can be expanded, involving, for example, community pharmacies.
“In a context where there is a greater quantity of vaccines on the market, this transition of places is natural, desirable and could happen. Now at this time, when we are managing a process that still has a shortage of quantities, the centralized process and the more traditional ways is what is defined. But in this matter, as in others, we have pharmacies, ”said Marta Temido.
The minister also assured that the consumables needed for vaccination – the Pfizer vaccine comes in multidose vials – “the team It is defined and acquisitions and acquisition reinforcement are being carried out. Still on the non-participation of the Armed Forces in the transport of vaccines, the minister explained that “the transport of medicines are sophisticated operations that involve their own technical characteristics and will be carried out by the transport network itself” in this area.
But there will be “the support of the security forces so that this transport process is adequately prevented against any complication that could endanger the safety of the vaccines or the vaccination process,” said Marta Temido.
