At this stage, and although around 100 to 110 thousand vaccines continue to be inoculated per day, there is also, given the need to comply with the second doses, a shortage of vaccines, which limits the capacity to correspond to the enormous influx of the vaccination process in these younger age groups”, informed Lusa, a source from the structure that coordinates the vaccination logistics. Given this, the 'task force' led by Gouveia e Melo acknowledged that, in some of the approximately 300 Covid-19 vaccination centres available in mainland Portugal, “there may, momentarily, be some delay in the scheduling process”. “Scheduling spaces available on the portal are managed according to a matrix, created according to the availability of vaccines and the vaccination capacity of the places”, explained the same source.

Today, the Minister of Health announced that the Government is negotiating with the European Commission and some Member States so that Portugal receive in advance more doses of vaccine against Covid-19 from Pfizer. On Tuesday, the coordinator of the vaccination plan against Covid-19 said that vacancies for self-scheduling are exhausted in some municipalities, due to the high demand given the number of vaccines available. “The country has different councils with different capacities. There are places where the vacancies for self-scheduling have already run out and there are other places where they have not run out”, said Henrique Gouveia e Melo, after being honored in Vila Real.

According to the coordinator of the 'task force´ of vaccination logistics, who did not specify the places where spaces for self-scheduling are exhausted, “there are no vaccines to vaccinate millions of people”. “People who got to self-schedule first are waiting to be vaccinated. After these people are vaccinated, other places will open again for other people to be vaccinated”, assured the vice-admiral. On 12 July, the self-scheduling of the vaccine against covid-19 was made available for people aged 23 or over on the Directorate-General for Health's portal for these appointments. The self-scheduling portal went live on 23 April for people aged 65 and over and has since been available for bookings in the 50s, 40s and 30s and, more recently, 20s. Also on Tuesday, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo predicted that, by the end of September, “virtually the entire population” eligible for this process will be vaccinated.