70% of adults to be vaccinated by end of summer – PM

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has said that the national vaccination plan is in line with the European Commission’s objectives and that as long as there are no incident or unforeseen events Portugal will have 70% of the adult population vaccinated by the summer’s end.

Costa gave the prediction at a press conference at the end of a summit of European leaders, which took place by videoconference, after being confronted with the vaccination targets in the European Commission’s plan.

“The European Commission’s proposals are in line with our own vaccination plan and the weekly doses that Portugal receives derive from the contracts defined by the European Commission itself. Therefore, the targets are set considering the doses and the rhythm of their distribution,” he said.

In this context, according to him, if there is not a hitch in the process of distributing the vaccines, which are contracted and scheduled, Portugal will reach the end of the summer with conditions to have 70% of the population immunised.

However, Costa wanted to highlight that several conditions do not depend on them, giving as examples the changes in Pfizer factories or the recent car accident on the A2 motorway.

“Nobody knows if we will have other incidents. If there are no incidents, with the timetable defined and contracted between the European Commission and the different companies, as well as the distribution timetable established for the different countries, this will allow that in all, and also in Portugal, 70% of the population will be properly vaccinated and immunised,” he said.

Concerning the national vaccination plan, Costa said that, to date, a total of 202,150 vaccines had been administered and reiterated that Portugal continues to be prepared to ensure that vaccination is carried out at the planned pace, namely with vaccination of all users and employees of homes – an operation that is expected to be concluded by the end of next week.