Portugal today started a vaccination campaign for children aged 5 to 11 years. About 80,000 children out of a total of 640,000 children aged 5 to 11 years have signed up to receive the first dose of Pfizer’s modified pediatric vaccine this weekend.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa explained yesterday that the spread of the coronavirus is accelerating “in unvaccinated children and their parents”. In Portugal, 88.9 percent of the population of 10.3 million have been vaccinated. The country has the second highest vaccination rate in the world after the United Arab Emirates. More than 2.2 million booster injections have also been administered.

Portugal also started vaccinating children sooner than many other European countries. France announced that it will probably be able to start on Wednesday, in our country the Inter-Ministerial Committee of Public Health will consider vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 years on Monday, after positive advice from the Superior Health Council.

Despite high vaccination coverage, the government has taken several control measures since early December to expand the use of mouth masks, vaccination certificates and coronavirus tests. The Christmas holidays have also been extended and teleworking is mandatory in the first week of January. Portugal is also one of the countries that requires a negative test to enter the country.

The number of infections is now at its highest level since February, now the omicron variant is making rapid progress. The number of people in intensive care has more than doubled in one month. Sixty percent of ICU beds are currently occupied.