“The first deliveries of vaccines against monkeypox have arrived in Portugal to protect Portuguese citizens and respond to the Monkeypox outbreak,” said the commissioner, in a statement to Lusa.

Stella Kyriakides underlined that in the space of two weeks, the European Commission acquired around 110,000 doses of vaccines and started deliveries to the most affected countries, with Spain being the first Member State to receive a shipment of 5,300 doses, on 28 June.

At the time, the European Commission, which negotiated the purchase of a total of 109,090 doses of the third-generation vaccine from the Bavarian Nordic pharmaceutical company, indicated that Portugal, Germany and Belgium would follow between July and August.

“This work will now continue and intensify as we head towards another period of autumn and winter, with the Covid-19 pandemic close by”, the commissioner told Lusa.

According to the most recent data from the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), released last Thursday, cases of Monkeypox in Portugal have exceeded 400, and cases have also been reported in Madeira.

According to the DGS, all confirmed infections are in men between the ages of 19 and 61, with the majority under 40 years of age.