Health authorities in Portugal have sent out 1,677 text messages calling on citizens to make appointments to be vaccinated.
‘Only’ 902 people have responded ‘Yes’ – which could mean that 46.2% either don’t want to receive their shots, haven’t yet decided, or haven’t opened their text messages.
Health minister Marta Temido gave this information yesterday in a wide-ranging ‘update’ of Portugal’s current situation.
She added that 397,000 citizens had received their first shots of the vaccines by the start of this week, with 105,000 having received both.
Today in Lisbon politicians are in a meeting with various experts at Infarmed to discuss the country’s epidemiological situation with a view to establishing ‘next steps’.
So far, information coming out of the meeting gels with everything that has been appearing in the press: the curve is reducing, transmission is generally below 1 (except on the island of Madeira, where it is still around 1.13) but the number of cases in Portugal remains “extremely elevated”.
Experts interviewed for their opinions over the weekend have all been very clear about deconfinement being an issue that has to be taken with ‘great caution’.
It remains to be seen what political statements will come from today’s meeting, and whether some kind of ‘roadmap’ out of Portugal’s current lockdown emerges.
