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As soon as the vaccines arrive in Portugal, they will be needed, maximum three days to start immunization. The guarantee was delivered this Friday by Francisco Ramos, coordinator of the workgroup created to develop the vaccination plan against Covid-19.
“There is no reason why this should not happen,” said the former Secretary of State for Health, who participated in the Radio Observer Crisis Office program, a day after the public presentation of the plan.
The conversation during the program allowed to know new details about how the whole process should go. Francisco Ramos recalled, for example, that the United Kingdom approved the Covid-19 vaccine only for people over 18 years of age and it is expected that the European Medicines Agency will do the same, that is why “young people and children up to 18 years of age probably won’t get vaccinated for now, as well as pregnant women, because the experts from the agencies that approve the vaccine say that there is no evidence that it should be administered to these people.
Still regarding the administration of vaccines, the coordinator of the workgroup explained that People who do not have a GP should contact the National Health Service (SNS) to get vaccinated against the new coronavirus. This is because all the people who are part of the priority groups for vaccination, in a first phase, that is, those who have commobilities such as heart failure, coronary heart disease, kidney failure and chronic respiratory disease, and who are registered the health centers will be identified by primary health care and “invited” to be vaccinated.
People who do not have a family doctor may request a medical statement from a private doctor or insurance “proving the required clinical condition” for vaccination, but They should contact their home health center to arrange the vaccination.
The vaccination process will be scheduled marking the place, date and time so that it runs smoothly ”.
Regarding the vaccination of healthcare professionals, Francisco Ramos highlighted that hospitals such as Santa Maria, in Lisbon, São João, in Porto, and Hospital de Coimbra have around 10,000 professionals and considered that it will be necessary to make a “schedule” to know who will be vaccinated on the first day, that is, the people that hospitals understand as “most relevant”.
“This is a job that should be done with general guidelines, but that later requires an adjustment closer to the ground.”
Francisco Ramos also mentioned that pharmacies are “not ruled out” from the vaccination process, dough workgroup he chose to recommend that immunization be carried out in health centers, in the first phase, since it is in primary health care where “routines in Portugal are better established.”
The coordinator of the workgroup He also indicated that there is already a storage space for more than a million doses of vaccines, but it is not disclosed for safety reasons. In fact, according to Francisco Ramos, it was the Security Information Service (SIS) that recommended that the location of the space be secret.
The capacity of this space far exceeds one million doses and the maximum point that we foresee in stock in the central warehouse for this vaccine. [da Pfizer] there are 800 thousand doses ”.
It is recalled that the vaccination plan against Covid-19 was presented this Thursday, at Infarmed, in Lisbon, in a session attended by the Prime Minister, António Costa, and the Minister of Health, Marta Temido.
Priority groups, vaccination sites, deadlines. Know step by step the government plan
The Government has already announced that the vaccine against Covid-19 will not be mandatory and the former Secretary of State for Health considers that it would be “a mistake” if that happened: “In my opinion and, at least for me, it will never be proposed that the vaccine is mandatory ”. Francisco Ramos recognized, however, that one of the greatest challenges will be to obtain the trust of users, ensuring that all the conditions are in place for that trust to exist.
The vaccine against Covid-19 is coming, but the tunnel is “painful” and “very long”, warns Costa
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