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After presenting the plan to vaccinate almost a million people against Covid-19 since January, the Prime Minister’s warning: “The tunnel is quite long and quite painful.” Is that, despite the fact that Portugal has purchased 22 million doses of vaccines, “not all arrive automatically on the first day.” “They are coming gradually throughout the year 2021.”
That is why priority criteria must be defined, as they were this Thursday, and which, for António Costa, are “clear” and “transparent”: “First, protect who can protect us: health professionals, those who work at home, security forces and armed forces ”. Then the “most vulnerable populations”. The Prime Minister stressed that vaccination will be “universal, optional, free and distributed to the entire population” and said that “there are good reasons to trust this process.”
Costa still considered that “it will be easier to operate in the first few weeks, with few doses and fewer people to be vaccinated ”and that“ it will be worse when there are more doses and the universe to be vaccinated also expands ”.
Vaccination carried out by the NHS in 1200 localities. Patients over 50 years old, homes and health professionals are the priority
In a more pessimistic tone, the minister warned that “it is necessary to know that this entire operation is subject to a very important set of weightlessness.” “First, upstream from Portugal, because industrial production does not depend on us nor the licensing of vaccines, “he explained, adding that it is necessary, for these reasons,” flexibility to readjust the calendar.
These crises will only be overcome the day we have reached the level of mass immunization that will allow us to dismiss the pandemic, “he said.
The Prime Minister ended his speech by saying that “it is good to know that there is light, but we have a very long tunnel to go through.” And that “the eyes take a while to get used to the light, that the wounds leave scars and that there will be various pains to treat.” Still, he ended with a message of confidence: “Today we are in a better moment than last week and six months ago ”.
The Minister of Health delivered the opening speech to present the plan. And he started by saying: “Today is an important day. Portugal, as other countries have been doing in recent days, has a vaccine distribution and administration plan ”. “This is another step in a job that started many months ago.He added.
Despite all the uncertainties, the testing phase we are still in, the age groups for which the tests were performed, but also other aspects of the technical dimensions, cannot prevent us from planning what will be one of the instruments to continue facing this disease“, said.
The minister guaranteed that Portugal “effectively fulfills what, for now, is the first scenario: vaccines to be distributed on the NHS. universal and free character “ and 22 million doses that will be “available at various points” on the NHS, using the NHS chain as much as possible in the first phase. “And then eventually expandable to other points in the system, with secure logistics and records that allow you to track and monitor the process at all times,” he said.
Temido stressed that “this is a moment of great importance.” “We cannot be distracted that the Vaccine availability will continue to be necessary, when it happens and with the rhythm that will be implemented, for many months ”, he added.
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