GOVESP
Given the evolution of the current vaccination campaign and the availability of vaccines, vaccination will be expanded to this age group starting next Tuesday. Appointments must be made before the Christmas and New Year festive period.
Free seasonal vaccination against influenza and Covid-19 will be extended to the population in this age group between 50 and 59 years old from Tuesday, announced the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
People between 50 and 59 years old “can schedule from December 17th from 2024 [terça-feira] vaccination against flu and covid-19 in a health unit of the National Health Service or in participating community pharmacies”, said the DGS in a statement.
The expansion to this age group “happens in view of the evolution of the current vaccination campaign and the availability of vaccines”, said the Secretariat, highlighting that, to optimize individual and collective protection, scheduling should preferably be done even before the festive period of the year. Christmas and New Year.
Vaccination of people aged 60 or over, people with comorbidities, healthcare professionals and other risk groups, remains a prioritythe statement added. As winter approaches, the period of greatest circulation of respiratory viruses, the DGS appealed to eligible groups to vaccinate“especially with the approach of Christmas festivities, moments of family and friends gatherings”.
Flu cases to increase
Positive cases for the influenza virus continue to increase and last week laboratories reported 260 casesthe highest number since the beginning of the surveillance season, according to the Ricardo Jorge Institute.
According to the epidemiological surveillance bulletin for influenza and other respiratory viruses from the Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health (INSA), since the beginning of the surveillance season, on September 30, the laboratories of the Portuguese Network of Laboratories for the Diagnosis of Influenza identified 1,052 cases.
In the last week alone, 260 positive cases of the flu virus were identified, which represents around a quarter of total infections reported since the end of September. Of these, 240 are type B and 20 are type A.
Over the same period, laboratories also reported five cases of co-detection of the flu virus and SARS-CoV-2.
The upward trend in the number of flu cases in recent weeks is also reflected in data reported by the sentinel surveillance network, which analyzed 274 cases of acute respiratory infection and flu syndrome and detected 18 cases of flu — 14 of type B and four of type type A.
According to the latest data from DGS, between September 20th, when the current vaccination campaign began, and December 8th, 1,467,039 people were vaccinated with seasonal reinforcement against covid-19 and 2,207,428 people against the flu.
The autumn-winter seasonal vaccination campaign is taking place in more than 3,500 vaccination points across the country, with the priority being to protect the most vulnerable people, preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death.
