It has been officially more than one year since the state of emergency was announced in Portugal due to the Coronavirus pandemic. On March 11, a year after it was first announced, the Portuguese government announced that the confinement measures would slowly be lifted in hopes of re-opening the country in the middle of April.
Our infection and death numbers are back to the “low” numbers we had managed to achieve at the beginning of the pandemic, but honestly, without a vaccine, Portugal will keep going through waves.
Today, I will breakdown what primary sources expect the COVID-19 vaccine rollout will be like, but keep in mind, these are just predictions. We just had a huge setback with the halt of the Astra Zeneca vaccine (for my thoughts on this, check out the bottom of the post). While I am hoping for no more setbacks, I expect there will be plenty more.
The 3 Stages of the COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout
It was announced that the vaccine rollout would happen in three stages according to the risks of each population group. Here’s the breakdown:
STAGE 1
Start Date Dec 2020 (ongoing)
- Health workers caring for COVID-19 patients in hospital centers.
- Nursing home residents.
- Health workers caring for unvaccinated people.
- People aged 50+ with certain health issues (Feb start date).*
- People aged 80+ regardless of health status.
- People age 16+ with trisomy.
- People who work in health response systems, the armed forces, sovereign bodies, state of emergency workers, civil protection workers, teachers and daycare center workers**.
STAGE 2
Estimated Start Date April 2021
- People ages 65-79
- People 50-64 with certain health issues***
STAGE 3
Estimated Start Date To Be Announced
- Everyone else
NOTES ON THE ABOVE
*People with cardiac issues, heart disease, renal issues, COPD, chronic respiratory disease who require ventilators and oxygen tanks.
** This is expected to happen throughout the 1st and 2nd phases.
*** diabetes, malignant neoplasma, chronic kidney disease, liver failure, obesity, high blood pressure
WHAT IS THE COVID-19 VACCINATION PROCESS LIKE IN PORTUGAL?
This is what the scheduling process for the COVID-19 vaccination in Portugal is said to work:
- You will receive an SMS from the 2424 number. This message will include the date, time, and location for the vaccination.
- You need to either confirm or refuse the appointment (there will be instructions in the SMS on how to do this).
- If you do not respond to the SMS, you will be contacted via phone call.
- If you are not reached via telephone, a letter will be sent with the scheduled date and time.
- The day before the appointment, an SMS will be sent to you with a reminder of the time, date, and place for the vaccination.
From here, I don’t have any more information since as of March 16, 1,168,215 doses of COVID vaccines have been administered. This is about 5.7% of the Portuguese Population.
My Opinion on the AstraZeneca Vaccine Suspension in Portugal
People are dying from COVID-19. Business is on its last legs. Portugal’s tourism industry is all but dead. When I consider this compared to the number of blood clots (37/17 million people), I say let us decide if we want to take the risk. I keep seeing shops close everywhere. Little antiques shops, restaurants, historic bookstores are being bought out by conglomerates. Portugal needs this vaccine and it needed it yesterday. I for one would take the risk if it was made available to me. Let me know what your stance is in the comments below.
The majority of the information for this post came from the DGS. Other sources are linked to directly on the post. If you have more questions about the COVID-19 vaccination schedule and process in Portugal, leave a comment. I’ll see what I can dig up.