The general director of Health (DGS), Graça Freitas, has announced that the administration of a third dose of vaccine against Covid-19 may be given to two different groups of the population.
“The issue of the third dose has two components: for the immunosuppressed it is another opportunity to be immunised; for people who have had their vaccination, but because they are old, sick or have another condition that has not left them permanently protected, an additional dose is being considered. These are the studies that are being carried out and that have a lot to do with the duration of immunity”, she said.
In an interview on SIC's 'Casa Feliz' program, Freitas stressed that for immunosuppressed people “another dose of the vaccine is advised”, not setting up a booster, but rather an “another opportunity to get vaccinated”, giving as an example a cancer patient after undergoing treatment that affected their immune system. “It is a restricted group, there will be less than 100,000 people”, she stressed.
“It is different in certain people that do not have such a strong immune system: in these people we need to reinforce it, taking the immunity they already have from the other two doses and stimulating this immunity”, she added.
Graça Freitas also commented on the decision process of the vaccination of children and young people between 12 and 15 years old, pointing out the “great need” that the DGS felt for more data and made a counterpoint with the process for the elderly.
“The benefit of vaccinating an elderly person is immense, because they have a great risk of getting the disease and of dying. The benefits far outweigh the risks. Obviously, the younger ones have less serious illness, so the benefits are a little smaller and we had to be much more careful with the risks than we already are. That's what happened, we had to wait for studies to say that vaccinating this age group is beneficial and safe”.
Thus, the leader of the national health authority reiterated that the recommendation for vaccination for this age group is made "safely" for everyone and argued that "the faster and more people arrive, the better", especially with the start of the school year in less than a month.
As for the country's advance in the process of decontamination, due to the progress of the vaccination campaign, it is a “question of balance”, maintained Graça Freitas, and called for people to take the vaccine to enable the reduction of restrictions.
“The more people that are vaccinated, the more we are able to lighten the measurements and our lives will become normal, or more how it used to be. I said similar and not the same, because it is not yet time to do everything, but it is time for us to understand what we can do on a daily basis to reduce risk, because it is not zero yet”, she concluded.
