Speaking to journalists at the end of a ceremony of the signing of a protocol with the social sector within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), at Palácio Marquês do Alegrete, in Lisbon, Marta Temido stressed that the Government does not recommend vaccines, but which only applies the recommendations of the technical entities on this matter. “What the DGS has conveyed to us is the understanding of the Technical Commission on Vaccination is that it will be desirable to have some more time and they referred us to a period of two weeks to understand in more detail what the calendars are”, she said.

According to the official, the preliminary opinions of this commission point to "a prioritization of the age group from 18 to 16 years old" and "a prioritization of vaccination of high risk children in the range" below, between 15 and 12 years old, in addition to the aforementioned “request more time” to collect and analyze information. However, she assured that the executive and the task force responsible for the process are prepared for any scenario.

“If the technical indication is that it is to vaccinate children from 12 to 18 years old, it is to vaccinate. If the technical indication goes the other way, naturally we will accommodate our needs”, she noted. “We are prepared to start vaccinating under 18 in the last week of August. Our vaccination campaign is designed for this, we are still awaiting the technical indications”, she continued.