When the first shipment of vaccines against the novel coronavirus is sent out, if all clinical trials are successful, a batch bought as part of the European Union's order for 300 million vaccines from an AstraZeneca laboratory may be distributed to Member States by the end of the year.
"With this adhesion, and since the vaccines will be distributed proportionally, according to the number of inhabitants by country, Portugal will receive a total of 6.9 million vaccines, distributed as of December, with a first acquisition of about 690 thousand vaccines, " an Infarmed source told press this week.
As vaccines are purchased by the European Union itself, part of the amount will be financed by the European Commission's Emergency Support fund. However, Infarmed also informs that other negotiation processes are underway to purchase vaccines against COVID-19.
With approximately 10 million inhabitants, Portugal would have "60% of the population safeguarded" against the SARS-Cov-2 virus through this batch, the same source said. If the vaccine from the French pharmaceutical laboratory of AstraZeneca is successful, following completion of clinical trials, it is expected that another 100 million vaccines will be purchased by the European Commission, Infarmed revealed.
At this time, clinical trials are still underway to prove the effectiveness of this vaccine - it is on the verge of phase 3, and has so far yielded promising results.
