Manuel Pizarro guarantees that all vaccines will be available within eight to ten weeks.

Health Minister Manuel Pizarro guaranteed this Monday in Matosinhos that the necessary vaccines will be available within eight to ten weeks so that all Portuguese who have an indication can be vaccinated.

Speaking on the sidelines of the initiative “4 programs to mobilize health” within the framework of the Plan of Recovery and Resilience (PRR), Manuel Pizarro reacted to the message made this Monday by the National Association of Family Health Institutions that there are health systems with very low or even zero supplies of flu vaccines, and this situation should only stabilize from the second week of October.

“This campaign will last between eight and ten weeks, firstly because it would be logistically impossible to vaccinate everyone in one to two weeks, and as we have always said, we are gradually receiving supplies of vaccines from the companies we have purchased them from.” – said the minister.

“Why aren’t they all here? Because these vaccines are prepared for the latest strains of influenza and covid viruses. The production process began a few weeks ago. People need to be completely reassured. They will be available during this period.” eight to ten weeks of all the necessary vaccines so that all Portuguese who have an indication can be vaccinated,” he said.

Diogo Urjais, vice-president of the National Association of Family Health Institutions (USF-AN), told Lusa that this situation is due to a reduction in the number of influenza vaccines allocated to primary health care and a delay in the supply of vaccines to some laboratories.

“Not all of them will be available in the first days or weeks (…), but there is an advantage: there have never been 3,500 places where the Portuguese could be vaccinated as now,” responded Manuel Pizarro.

Flu vaccinations, which run alongside Covid-19 this year, began last Friday and are preferably carried out in community pharmacies for people over 60 years of age.

In the SNS, vaccination will be carried out by people under 60 years of age with risk pathologies, pregnant women and healthcare professionals (public and private) and other health services, students undergoing clinical internships, firefighters involved in transporting patients. and caregivers of dependent people, who will be called to the respective health centers where they are registered.

Vaccination will also be carried out in homes, integrated care networks and in prisons by NHS staff.