“Despite the apparent success, largely due to the effort and dedication of professionals from the National Health Service (SNS), the seasonal vaccination process is far from reaching ideal goals,” said the USF-AN in a statement.

The association alleged that in addition to the primary health care campaign starting later, there have been “persistent failures” in the availability of vaccines to health centres, “which do not appear to be happening in pharmacies”.

This situation is “compromising the total success of the campaign, with wear and tear on professionals and patients' trust, not to mention the impact on disease management”, highlighted USF-AN.

According to the association, despite the lack of stock in some SNS units, the highest rate of vaccination coverage against Covid-19 and flu was recorded among elderly people aged 85 and over, who are vaccinated exclusively in health centres.

Furthermore, health centres have been vaccinating more than pharmacies for three consecutive weeks, “denoting the effort to achieve the proposed objectives and provide the best response to the population, even in less favourable conditions”, said the association that represents the unit's family health.

According to the Secretariat's latest report, between September 20th and December 1st, 1,444,120 people were vaccinated with the seasonal booster against Covid-19 and 2,158,165 people against the flu.

The data also indicates that 2,018,832 were vaccinated in pharmacies that are part of the seasonal campaign and 1,582,863 chose to take the vaccines in SNS units.

Coverage against influenza for elderly people aged 85 and over, who are only vaccinated in the SUS, is 80.65%, falling to 62.60% in the case of a booster against Covid-19.