“The scenario we have on the table is on September 29 to start [with vaccination against influenza and Covid-19] with strength and with enormous support from the Portuguese”, said Fernando Araújo at the second Symposium of the World Health Organization (WHO) dedicated to the digital future, taking place in Porto.

He added that vaccination will be “something complex” because it will involve a very wide range of entities from the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health guaranteed that the vaccination process will be easy, stating the commitment that no Portuguese person who wants to be vaccinated will fail to do so due to a lack of vaccines.

“No Portuguese person with indications to be vaccinated will fail to do so due to lack of vaccines, I make the commitment here,” he stated.

The government official highlighted that vaccination continues to be “very important”, especially for people at greater risk.

Pizarro explained that the vaccines that will be administered are the new-generation vaccines approved a few days ago by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Vaccination against Covid-19 will take place in health centres simultaneously with the flu, similar to what happened in 2022.

What is new this year is that, for the first time, it will also be possible to administer the vaccine against Covid-19 in community pharmacies that have a vaccine administration service, professionals with specific training in administering vaccines and who express their willingness to participate in the campaign, according to an ordinance published on August 17 in Diário da República.

These pharmacies will be able to operate with longer opening hours, with the list of members available on the websites of the National Health Service, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) and Infarmed.

It will now be up to the DGS to issue the technical guidelines that govern the vaccination process, namely defining the vaccination criteria and eligible users.