Portugal wants to donate six million vaccines to Portuguese-speaking countries, says Government – Observer
Portugal intends to donate six million vaccines against a Covid-19, triple the number delivered so far, to Portuguese-speaking countries, announced this Tuesday the minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva.
“It is very important for us, at the same time as we vaccinate our people, to have a cooperation program with Portuguese-speaking countries, especially those in Africa and East Timor, a vaccine donation program. We have already donated two million vaccines and our aim is to reach six million”, asked the head of Portuguese diplomacy, at the United Nations headquarters, in New York, in an interview with UN News.
Santos Silva stressed that vaccination “is an effort” that belongs to everyone.
“One thing is certain: as there is a region in the world where vaccination is not widespread, no other region in the world can say that it is safe”, he pointed out, after noting that Portugal is an exception worldwide.
Portugal is one of the countries in the world with the highest level of vaccination. Our adult population is practically all vaccinated. We are already vaccinating the older ones with the third dose. From this point of view, we are an exception, most of the world is not at this stage”, he commented.
In this global effort, the Portuguese government official invited the other members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) to collaborate in the donation of vaccines against a Covid-19.
On the restrictions imposed on entry into Portugal – namely the obligation to present negative Covid-19 test, even for those vaccinated -, introduced to contain the spread of Omicron, a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, Santos Silva asked for “patience” and “understanding”.
“We had to ask people to sacrifice more,” he said, explaining that the measures will continue while health authorities try to understand the effects of this new variant.
Covid-19 has caused at least 5,261,473 deaths worldwide, among more than 265.80 million infections by the new coronavirus registered since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest report by the Agence France-Presse.
In Portugal, since March 2020, 18,572 people died and 1,172,420 cases of infection were recorded, according to data from the General Directorate of Health.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
A new variant, an Omicron, classified as “concerned” by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been detected in southern Africa, but since the South African health authorities raised the alert on 24 November, infections have been reported in some from 30 countries from all continents, including Portugal.