Yesterday, April 21st, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) announced that it has updated the vaccination plan against Covid-19 due to a greater availability of vaccine doses, and will move on to vaccinating people between 16 and 79 years old.
In their released statement the DGS indicates that in Phase 2 of the vaccination plan, instead of the original plan to vaccinate all those over 65 and those between 50 and 65 with a high risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19 due to existing conditions, the two new distinct Phase 2 strategies are "vaccination of lower age groups, up to 16 years old, and of people aged 16 or over and are at risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19, due to existing conditions."
Among the diseases that will give priority to taking the vaccine, regardless of age, are diabetes, severe obesity, active cancer, transplantation and immunosuppression, severe neurological diseases and mental illness.
In addition, those who recovered from Covid-19 infection "more than six months ago" are also included in the second vaccination phase, but can only be vaccinated with one dose, regardless of the vaccine. Vaccination of these people will start as soon as everyone over 60 years old has been vaccinated.
"The Vaccination Plan is dynamic, evolutionary and adaptable to the evolution of scientific knowledge and the timing of the arrival in Portugal of the different vaccines against Covid-19", explains the DGS spokesperson, stressing that the objective is "to save lives, by reducing mortality and hospitalisations, and preserving the resilience of the health system and the response system to the pandemic”.
