Covid-19: Vaccination for people over 30 will begin in June

The Government have announced that they will accelerate vaccination against Covid-19 “at a national level”, and not just in Lisbon, extending it to people over 40 from June 6th, and over 30 years old from June 20th.

In a message published on the official government Twitter account last night, the executive wrote that, due to the “good pace of the Anti-COVID Vaccination Plan19 and the availability of vaccines, it has been decided to accelerate the vaccination at national level”.

The Government also stated that “the extension of vaccination to new age groups” will start from June 6th for “people over 40” and, from June 20th, for “people over 30”, “throughout the continental territory”.

On Tuesday, the Assistant Secretary of State and Health, António Lacerda Sales, had announced that vaccination against Covid-19 was going to be accelerated in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, in the 40s and 30s, following an increase in infections.

The announcement of the opening of vaccination at national level for these age groups came hours after the Mayor of Porto demanded equal treatment for the whole country, accusing the Government of benefitting “the offender”, by accelerating the campaign in the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, due to an increase in infections.

“There cannot be one country and then there is Lisbon. There must be a single country and we must demand equal treatment for Portugal as a whole nation,” said Rui Moreira, in a video statement published on the Chamber’s official website. from Porto.

“What I wanted to say clearly to the Government and to the competent authorities is that we demand an equal treatment for the whole country in this matter”, he reiterated.

After the announcement by the Secretary of State, the coordinator of the ‘task force’ for vaccination, Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, also confirmed that the extension to the age groups of 30 and 40 years will take place at a “national level” “, and not just in the Lisbon region.

Gouveia e Melo told the Publico newspaper that the vaccination in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo will, in fact, be reinforced, as it is lagging behind other regions of the country, such as the Alentejo and the central region, but reiterated that this is already being done in the Algarve and added that there will also be a reinforcement of vaccines in the North, “but keeping the same age schedule”.

“Our plan is national and we are recovering the regions [percentage] that are lagging behind and this will also include the North. The idea is to always have the regions balanced because it is the fairest. When talking about accelerating, it is giving more vaccines, but keeping the same age schedule ”, he assured.

In Portugal, 17,021 people have died from 845,840 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health.

Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/