[ad_1]
METERThousands of users say they cannot get vaccinated against the flu, a situation that Graça Freitas attributes to high demand and the fact that, at this time, access to the health center may be more difficult.
But the vaccine will continue to be administered: “At the moment we already have 1.8 million doses delivered to health centers,” said the directorGeneral of Health in an interview with the Lusa agency.
Authorities estimate that around 1.3 million vaccines have already been administered, with half a million remaining to be administered.
We have yet to receive the last stretch 270 thousand vaccines, which should arrive between the end of November and the principle of December, a deadline that the authorities try to anticipate.
“As there is a great demand, some people will be left without a vaccine, it is obvious yes, just do the math. We have more people in these age groups and risk groups than the vaccines that the country could buy, but this has to do with the availability of vaccines that were available all over the world ”, explained Graça Freitas.
The National Health Service managed just over two million doses of vaccines, adding to the approximately 500 thousand in the sector private.
However, it has never been vaccinated so much “in so few weeks” as in any other time flu, despite all the limitations caused by the pandemic from COVID-19-19.
“In other years, we usually vaccinate about 200 thousand people in the first week of vaccination and in this we vaccinate 300 thousand people,” explained Graça Freitas.
The last time The flu was the year in which the majority of vaccines were vaccinated in Portugal, with a vaccination rate among the best in Europe among the elderly. In previous years, around 1.5 million doses of vaccines were purchased.
“We have been gradually expanding our purchase over the years because there was the capacity to vaccinate more and more people, and there were years in the past when adherence to vaccination was not so great and, at this time, it exceeds 65 % ”, Advanced the directorGeneral, specialist in public health.
The expectation for 2020 without COVID-19 It was of the order of 1.6 million doses of vaccine, which are requested well in advance. “This year when the topic of COVID-19, we went quickly to see if we could buy more doses, because we have a Winter with two diseases at the same time it would not be the best scenario and, at that time, we managed to bring more than 400 thousand doses to the National Health Service and that was all we could find in the available market, “he said.
Pharmacies couldn’t even get what they used to buy, and the SNS acquired more than usual.
During a pandemicGraça Freitas, who coordinated the National Vaccination Program for several years, made several appeals to parents not to stop vaccinating their children, requests that were effective.
“There were breaks at the beginning of pandemic, at lockdown, but in the last evaluation we made, we had already recovered that default and we already had coverage rates at the level of other years and, in some cases, even higher, “he said.
Regarding the vaccine against COVID-19-19, Graça Freitas stated that the Infamous has a leading role, but that the Address-General Health created a Technical Vaccination Commission that defines, among other situations, the risk groups to be vaccinated.
According to director-In general, there are two ways of considering risk groups, always based on the logic that the person who benefits the most from the vaccine should be vaccinated first: the sick and the elderly.
There is another “very important” group, which are health professionals and caregivers who treat vulnerable populations.
“Portugal has mechanisms for several vaccines, but we are not sure which will be the first to reach the market,” said Graça Freitas, who took over as directorGeneral of Health in 2018.
Always be the first to know.
Follow the chosen site for the fourth consecutive year Consumer Choice.
Download our free app.
[ad_2]
