Prime Minister António Costa, Ministers of State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, National Defence João Gomes Cravinho, Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita and Health, Marta Temido, met with the specialists in charge of the vaccination plan against Covid-19, in Lisbon.
The Minister of Health, in a statement stated that on December 3 “there will be the first public presentation of the baseline scenario of the vaccination plan against Covid-19”, adding that “the national amount could reach 200 million euros and exceed 22 million doses’.
Marta Temido said that the working group “presented the four essential plans that will be made public tomorrow (3rd December): which vaccines are available and, depending on their quantities, which are the target groups for vaccination, where will the vaccine be administered, where electronic registration will be made, as well as aspects related to logistics, security, and communication aspects ”.
The Minister underlined that everyone should “have the perception that the vaccination process will be long, over several months, so we will have to ensure that we keep the rules until we can guarantee the administration of the vaccines, which we estimate may be made available to beginning of 2021 ».
Marta Temido underlined that “there are still many uncertainties in this process”, highlighting four.
The first is that “the results of the last phase of clinical trials prior to the authorization of introducing medicines are not yet known, so the efficacy of vaccines is not yet assessed by the European Medicines Agency”, although dates are already set for two vaccines.
The second is that “there are uncertainties with published clinical trials that mostly cover people between 18 and 55 years old”.
The third is that “the duration of immunity from vaccination is not yet fully known”.
And the fourth, “that the available data do not recommend the vaccination of children and pregnant women”.
The Minister recalled that “Portugal has been following the process conducted by the European Union for the development, production and distribution of vaccines” since June, having participated in the monitoring committee, and that “in August the Council of Ministers authorized the first expenditure on the acquisition of vaccines in the context of joint European purchases, in the initial amount of 20 million euros”.