So far 49,100 under-12s given dose of vaccine against Covid
Near 49,100 children aged between 5 and 11 years have so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the Ministry of Health.
In Portugal, about 49,100 children aged between 5 and 11 years have so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to a tally up to 7 pm on Thursday released by the Ministry of Health.
Thursday saw the start of the second period of vaccination of under-12s, with more than 105,000 vaccinations scheduled until Sunday.
The vaccination of people in the priority vaccination group for the school community also took place on Thursday, with around 23,000 vaccinated, in addition to around 4,900 staff of crèches and nursery schools, also scheduled for Thursday.
Overall, according to data released by the ministry, over 84,000 doses were administered to people in these groups on Thursday.
The vaccination of under-12s is taking place in the morning from Thursday to this Sunday.
In the afternoon, and also until Sunday, booster doses are being given, in Open House mode through a digital password, specifically for the school community, both teaching and non-teaching staff, recalls the ministry statement.
“Eligible users of the school community of primary and secondary education and social responses in childhood who want to be vaccinated with the booster dose, must first make the request for a digital password on the COVID-19 Portal (https://covid19.min-saude.pt/casa_aberta/),” it explains.
It adds that to obtain the digital passport, users should request it on the day they want to be vaccinated and then look online (at https://covid19.min-saude.pt/CVC) into availability at the intended vaccination centre. Once there, they should present a document proving their profession.
On Thursday alone, more than 18,500 digital passwords were requested, according to the ministry statement.
In the first period for the vaccination of children aged between 5 and 11, which took place over the weekend of December 18 and 19, 95,752 children were administered a dose of the Pfizer paediatric vaccine against Covid-19.
The decision to vaccinate this age group was announced by Portugal’s government on December 10, after the recommendation of the Directorate-General of Health (DGS), after hearing the Technical Commission on Vaccination and considering logistical issues with the coordination nucleus supporting the Ministry of Health.
In Portugal, 19,054 people have died due to covid-19 and 1,539,050 cases of infection have been counted since March 2020, according to the latest update from the DGS.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
A new variant, Omicron, considered worrying and very contagious by the World Health Organization (WHO), was detected in southern Africa, but since South African health authorities issued the alert on 24 November, infections have been reported in at least 110 countries, including Portugal, where it is now dominant.
