LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal will start vaccinating other people with COVID-19 boosters as well as the seasonal flu vaccine on Wednesday, before a spike in infections is expected after the summer, the head of the DGS’s fitness authority said on Friday.
The two reinforcements to be used are manufactured by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. They have been updated against new variants of COVID-19 and were approved on Thursday by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The so-called bivalent vaccines fight the BA. 1 edition of Omicron and the virus first detected in China in 2020.
“In this autumn-winter season, other people want to protect themselves from the severe bureaucracy of COVID and the flu,” DGS leader Graca Freitas told reporters. “The vaccination crusade will begin on September 7. “
Priority will be given to other people over the age of 80 and other people with underlying physical conditions, he said.
Both COVID booster and flu booster injections will be given at the same time, one in the arm. The vaccination crusade will run until December 17.
Portugal has conducted an acclaimed vaccine rollout around the world, and although the country has noticed an increase in the number of cases due to the spread variant of Omicron in the first few months of this year, deaths and hospitalizations were well below observed levels. in past waves.
(Reporting by Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Mark Porter)