The possibility that people over 25 years old can self-schedule the first dose of vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus comes after, earlier this week, vaccination was opened for the age group between 18 and 29 years old in descending order of age. The call for this age group is being made through central scheduling, with users receiving an SMS message or a phone call from the health services, but self-scheduling will gradually be available to 18 year olds.

This method allows people to select the place and date they want to be vaccinated, then receiving an SMS message confirming the day, time and vaccination center. Confirmation of the appointment requires that an SMS reply is sent. Following phase 2 of the vaccination plan and a greater number of vaccines received by Portugal, the self-scheduling portal went into operation on the 23 April for people aged 65 and over and, since then, has been available for booking ages 50, 40 and 30 and, more recently, 25 year olds.

In recent days, Portugal is accelerating vaccination against Covid-19 due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, considered to be more transmissible and which is already predominant in the country. This effort has already caused vaccination to reach a new daily record on Tuesday, with more than 154,600 vaccines administered to the population, the task force responsible for the process announced today.

The team led by Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo also said, in a press release, that in the last two days "more than 297,000 vaccines were administered", stressing that the new brand "was only possible with the understanding and patience of everyone users and the professionalism and delivery of health professionals”. In Portugal, since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, 17,126 people have died and 896,026 cases of infection have been registered, according to the Directorate-General for Health.

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