"The vaccination program will continue and this Sunday the second doses of vaccines against covid-19 will begin to be administered to almost 30 thousand health professionals from priority contexts of hospitals and primary health care," said the same source, in communicated.
The ministry also confirmed the information that, at European level, the pharmaceutical company BioNTech / Pfizer is going to make a “change to the delivery quantities of vaccines against covid-19, partially affecting the delivery of the week of 18 January”.
“Portugal and the Portuguese Presidency are in contact with the European Commission and with BioNTech / Pfizer itself, having this afternoon a meeting at European level in which the Commission and representatives of all Member States participated, in order to be presented the planning for the recovery of supplies and to confirm the quantities of the next deliveries ”, he said.
On December 27, the first phase of vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus began, covering professionals from university hospital centers in Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon North and Central Lisbon, who received the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.
Since then, about 106 thousand people have been vaccinated in mainland Portugal, including also users and employees of nursing homes and, as of today, health professionals from the priority services of hospitals in the private and social sector, according to the Ministry of Health. Cheers.
The first phase of the plan, until the end of March, also covers professionals from the armed forces, security forces and critical services. In this phase, as of February, people aged 50 years and over with at least one of the following pathologies will be vaccinated: heart failure, coronary heart disease, kidney failure or chronic respiratory disease under ventilatory support and / or long-term oxygen therapy duration.
The second phase starts in April and includes people aged 65 and over and people between 50 and 64 years old, including, with at least one of the following pathologies: diabetes, active malignancy, chronic kidney disease, heart failure liver disease, hypertension, obesity and other less prevalent diseases that may be defined later, depending on scientific knowledge.
In the third phase, the rest of the population will be vaccinated on a date to be determined. People to be vaccinated throughout the year will be contacted by the National Health Service (SNS).
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least two million deaths resulting from more than 93 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report made by the French agency AFP.
In Portugal, 8.543 people died from 528.469 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
