Asked at a press conference about who are the people who are dying from Covid-19, Graça Freitas stated that they are predominantly “very old people” and “very sick” with an average age above 80, with the majority having both doses of vaccine.

According to Graça Freitas, these people belong to three different groups depending on their vaccination status: “There are people who have two doses of the vaccine, which is not surprising, because the vaccine is not fully effective and not as effective as we would like in older people”.

Then there are people who have only one dose of the vaccine and some who have no dose of the vaccine, she said, stressing that this is a mortality that is in line with what “would be expected depending on the effectiveness of the vaccination” and in view of the Delta variant of coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

“We must not forget that, at the moment, the dominant variant in Portugal is Delta and that two doses of the vaccine are needed to provide protection, but even with two doses there is lower effectiveness of the vaccine in people who are older and who have associated pathologies”.