This Saturday, the first batch of Pfizer vaccines (9,750 doses) arrived to Portugal to help fight Covid-19, having been kept on the outskirts of Coimbra.
After the introduction of the vaccine by the company Pfizer to the European market, on December 21, 2020, and thus being able to start the vaccination campaign, after having been received in the national territory, it is very important to disseminate the rules that applies to the logistics, distribution and use of vaccines against coronavirus. The vaccines were received in Portugal in a single warehouse, which holds a Wholesale Distribution Authorization of medicated medicines at cold temperature, issued by INFARMED, I.P.
As vaccines they were transported in thermal cells highly qualified for the purpose (thermal transport container) at ultra-low temperature (ULT, -90 ° C to -60 ° C). Each container contains 195 multidose vials and each 0.45 ml multidose vial (primary packaging) of the concentrated vaccine solution for dilution with 1.8 ml 0.9% NaCl, thus allowing to reconstitute 5 doses of 0.3 ml .
Attached is the national distribution circuit for the Comercio vaccine, as well as its conservation conditions. Thus, we took the opportunity to disseminate the instructions contained in the Standard of the Directorate-General for Health, a “Vaccination campaign against COVID-19 - vaccine Comirnaty”, and consulted documents, demonstrative videos, which are regularly updated on the Agency's website European Medicines Agency and in the area for information on vaccines against a COVID-19 on the Infarmed website.
In addition to Pfizer, other vaccines are expected to arrive in Portugal in 2021.
The strategy for the European Union has been diversified as orders in order to reduce the risk of delays in vaccine production.
The next vaccine to arrive is Moderna, which started to be administered in the United States before Christmas. The regulator's green light is still missing, but that permission is expected in early January and distribution may begin three days later. The vaccine developed in Russia has no data expected to be authorized or administered in Europe.