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Portugal will receive another 70,200 doses of the first vaccine approved against covid in December, the Minister of Health announced in a statement made this Wednesday. The first 9,750 doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine arrive in the country the day after Christmas and Vaccination begins in the five main hospitals in the country next Sunday. The first to be immunized are healthcare professionals working in areas of direct contact with suspected or reported cases of covid patients.
“As the pharmaceutical company Pfizer anticipated the schedule of other deliveries, the first quarter was scheduled [de 2021], it will be possible to receive another 70,200 doses in our country at the end of this year. This December we will have an arrival of vaccines that reaches 79,950 doses, divided into these two deliveries. The first, which was already scheduled, for December 26 and the second now announced for December 28, “said Minister Marta Temido, who highlighted that it is an anticipation of deliveries and therefore” the total amount of vaccines that will be received in the first quarter will not change ”.
This additional delivery, Marta Temido added, “will allow 9,750 doses of vaccine to be allocated to Madeira and also to the Azores and, on the other hand, to extend vaccination to health professionals identified as direct providers of care to suspected or covid patients and to the universe of affected hospitals, “added the minister,” hoping to reach all NHS hospitals with this first delivery of vaccines. “
In relation to the first hospitals to receive the first doses on the 26th – they are the hospital and university centers of North Lisbon, Central Lisbon, Coimbra, Porto and São João – the expectation is that it will be possible to “vaccinate around 60% of those identified in this first moment ”. “The plans in each of the hospitals will be reviewed and we wait days after Natal, great job, but also great satisfaction with this opportunity,” concluded Marta Temido.
Vaccination for several days
Questioned by the PUBLIC, a source from the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra said that they will receive “2225 doses” and that “vaccination begins on the 27th and continues until the 29th.” A prediction given even before the announcement of the dreaded Marta, already made late in the afternoon. Without anticipating the rate of adherence of professionals or the number of vaccination points, the same source explained that the vaccines “will be administered by occupational health nurses and others from the same hospital center.” Regarding the professionals selected for this first phase still in December, the indications of the workgroup.
Vaccination will also take place at the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário Lisboa Norte “between December 27 and 30 throughout the day,” says the communication office, which, in terms of the number of professionals, only says that there was “a high level of adherence to vaccination ”. The election follows the “DGS guidelines and workgroupAnd the vaccination will be carried out “in the Hospital de Santa María, in an adequate and specific space for this operation”, which “will have six vaccination posts”. It is the nurses of the hospital, in conjunction with occupational health and the nursing department, who will vaccinate co-workers.
At the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário Lisboa Central, vaccination is also expected to continue until Wednesday. The immunization process will be carried out at the São José and Curry Cabral hospitals, with the creation of eight vaccination posts in each of the two units that will operate during the day. Each professional to be vaccinated in the first phase will receive an invitation, via SMS, with the place, day and time of their appointment.
The Centro Hospitalar e Universitário São João, as the president of the board of directors explains in the PÚBLICO / Rádio Renascença interview, hopes to manage the approximately 2,280 doses that it will receive on the first day of vaccination. To do this, they are transforming the outpatient area into 20 to 30 vaccination points. The adherence rate is significant, between 90 and 95%, according to Fernando Araújo.
The PUBLIC also questioned the Porto Hospital and University Center, which sent clarifications to the Ministry of Health.
