Young people aged 16 and over may self-schedule the first dose of the vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus after one week after the vaccination was opened for those aged 18 years and over. This allows people to select the place and date they want to be vaccinated, then they will receive an SMS message confirming the day, time and vaccination center.

Following phase two of the vaccination plan and a greater number of vaccines received by Portugal, the self-scheduling portal went into operation on the 23 April for people aged 65 and over and, since then, has been available for lane bookings for ages 50, 40 and 30 and, more recently, 20 years old.

In July, the Minister of Health said that young people under the age of 18 should start being vaccinated against Covid-19 in the last week of August, if the government could maintain the planned vaccination plan. “What we estimate is to follow this plan that we have and with the quantities of vaccines that continue to arrive, we will be able to open vaccination for those under 18 in the last week of August,” said Marta Temido, at the time, in an interview to TVI.

According to the government official, vaccination of children under 18 would only be possible if the vaccination plans were fulfilled. “Right now, we know that we have a vaccine that already has a clear indication for people over 16 years old, we have a vaccination plan that goes up to 18 years old and we remain committed to protecting those who are most vulnerable to this serious disease and being hospitalised”, he said, noting that the beginning of the school year is not in question.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 4,227,765 deaths worldwide, among more than 198.2 million cases of infection by the new coronavirus, according to the most recent report by the Agence France-Presse. In Portugal, since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, 17,378 people have died and 972,127 cases of infection have been registered, according to the Directorate-General for Health.

Vaccine sign up site https://covid19.min-saude.pt/pedido-de-agendamento/