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The first phase of the anti-covid 19 vaccination plan – a vaccine that will be universal and free – will cover 950,000 people, announced the coordinator of the workgroup Who drew up the plan, Francisco Ramos, former Secretary of State for Health and former president of the OPI.
The priority groups of the first phase will be:
1. Health professionals and residents of nursing homes and institutions and related professionals and interns in intensive care units (250 thousand people).
2. People aged 50 years or over, with at least one of the following pathologies: heart failure, coronary heart disease, kidney failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on ventilatory support and / or long-term oxygen therapy (400 thousand people).
3. Health professionals directly involved in patient care and professionals from the security forces and critical services (300 thousand people).
The first phase, he added, will run from January to February or, if things don’t go so well, until April.
Second stage
According to Francisco Ramos, the second phase will include people:
1. 65 years or more, with or without pathology (1.8 million people).
2. People over 50 years of age, with diabetes, active malignancy, liver failure, kidney failure, obesity, high blood pressure and possibly other pathologies (900,000 people).
In other words: in total, they will be covered 3.65 million people in the first two phases.
Third phase
In the third phase, the rest of the population will be vaccinated, subsequently establishing possible segmentations. Pregnant women and children will be left out because “there is not enough data to recommend” their vaccination.. For people over 75, “the data is limited.” Furthermore, “the duration of immunity conferred by vaccination is unknown.”
What is planned is the purchase of 22 million vaccines from six brands -with an estimated cost of 180 to 200 million euros-, centralizing the sales process from the European Union. The Government has also released the expected calendar for the arrival of the different doses.
At the end of the session, the Prime Minister warned that the vaccination process will have external imponderabilities to Portugal, and will also be complex internally, with the difficulties increasing the larger the universe of citizens to be vaccinated.
A “very long tunnel”
“Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is still very long and quite painful. Portugal will acquire 22 million vaccines, but that amount of vaccines does not arrive automatically on the first day. They arrive gradually and gradually throughout the year 2021 ”, declared the leader of the executive.
António Costa stressed that the vaccination operation will take place throughout the year and will not focus only on the first moment.
The possibility that the vaccination process does not start in January. “We have to tell the truth and for that it is necessary to know that this operation has a set of imponderables. It is not our responsibility to produce and license the vaccine. If there is a delay, we have to readjust our schedule. On December 29, we will not have a dose of the vaccine in Portugal in early January. “
For the head of Government, this crisis can only be declared over “when there is a degree of mass immunization.”
Then he stressed that “the effort made by the scientific community is remarkable.” “The effort to adapt the licensing process is extraordinary, either from Infarmed or from the European Medicines Agency, because it did in one year what would last six or seven years,” he said.
“Central Command” in Health
“It is an immense effort that will be made, but that is no less than the effort of the Portuguese during these months, deprived of their freedom and as a consequence of employment and the sustainability of companies,” he added.
Before the prime minister, Francisco Ramos had explained that “in the first phase, the vaccination points will be in health centers” that have a network of 1,200 posts with “a vast accumulated experience.” In homes and long-term care units, “the teams themselves will carry out the vaccination.”
The coordinator of the workgroup He said that the “central command to manage this process” will be in the Ministry of Health. But distribution logistics “are being prepared with solidity” and “with the help of the Armed Forces.”
“It is necessary to guarantee the safety of vaccination, inform the population and guarantee confidence in the vaccine, abolishing possible barriers to vaccination. There will be telephone lines and a website so that people have access to information in the information process “, said.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,495,205 deaths derived from more than 64.5 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 4,724 people died from 307,618 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate General of Health.
