The Secretary of State for Health estimated today that Portugal could achieve group immunity to Covid-19 “more likely in the beginning of Summer than the end”, if the current rate of arrival of vaccines and vaccinations is maintained.
“I usually say the phrase 'vaccines arrive and are given' and we continue to do that. If the forecasts come true, then during the summer, more towards the beginning than towards the end, 70% of the adult population will be vacinnated”, Diogo Serras Lopes told journalists.
The governor presided today, April 26th, at the inauguration of the rapdi vaccination centre in Portimão, one of the four municipalities in the country with the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 per 100 thousand inhabitants when the third phase of doconfinement began, on April 19th, which forced the municipality to go back to the first phase.
According to Diogo Serras Lopes, the Government's goal is to achieve, during the summer, the goal of group immunity (70% of the population), although the Government “does not like to give very specific goals, given that there have already been surprises with bad news about delivery of vaccines”.
The minister revealed that the Government will reinforce vaccination in the municipalities that had to go back to the first phase due to their number of registered cases, "so that the pandemic can be controlled more quickly".
“One of the things that has been done is that the municipalities that had to retun to phase 1 of deconfinement are privileged in terms of vaccination, having a higher percentage of vaccines allocated. There will be a logic, not only of age groups, but also where there are more cases, and Portimão is one of those cases”, he said.
The Secretary of State for Health refused to delay the vaccination process for the population of the Algarve, refuting the accusations of mayors who protested the fact that the Algarve is, allegedly, one of the regions with the least vaccinated population.
One of the most striking accusations came from the Mayor of Portimão, Isilda Gomes (PS), who a week ago said that the Government was not assuming its responsibility in the vaccination process.
“There is no delay in vaccination in the Algarve, because the rate of vaccination depends on the number of vaccines that arrive. The Algarve is a vital area for the country in terms of the economy”, claimed the Secretary of State for Health.
Regarding the opening of the vaccination centre in Portimão, one of the demands presented by Isilda Gomes to the Government, the officials considered that the space, installed in the municipal Sports Pavilion since March 3rd, "has now opened to respond to the greater capacity for vaccination".
"It was necessary to carry out a greater number of vaccinations per day than was being done, and the centre has now opened" he said, stressing that it is an example of "what is good organisation" of a vaccination centre.
Diogo Serras Lopes acknowledged that Portimão "is making an effort so that it can have the best possible result in terms of the number of cases of infection" by Covid-19, hence the centre is operating with a capacity to vaccinate 100 people per hour.
According to data provided at the scene by the health authorities, the vaccination centre in Portimão received, to date, 220 people registering to receive the first dose of the vaccine against the new coronavirus.
Isilda Gomes expressed to her satisfaction with the fact that the Government agreed to comply with all six requirements expressed in a claim book presented by the Mayor a week ago to combat the pandemic in the municipality.
"In addition to the opening of the rapid vaccination centre, we have the guarantee of strengthening the vaccination of the population, the reinforcement and greater intervention of the security forces and health professionals to monitor cases of infections", she pointed out.
"It was my duty to safeguard the safety of the population, because I answer, not to the Government, but to the populations that elected me," concluded the Mayor.
Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
