More than 940,000 people have been vaccinated against influenza since the start of the seasonal campaign, most in pharmacies, according to DGS.
© Lusa
20/10/2026
by
Lusa
Min 940,000 people have been vaccinated against influenza since the start of the seasonal campaign, most of which in pharmacies, today announced the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
According to the seasonal vaccination report released today, between the start of the campaign on September 30th and October 18th, a total of 947,839 people received the influenza vaccine, 520.584 in pharmacies that joined the campaign and the remaining 427.255 in units of the National Health Service (SNS).
According to DGS data, over 829 thousand people aged 60 years or older have been vaccinated, a vaccination coverage of 25.42% of this age group. 121.789 people were vaccinated in the 85-year-old or older group, with a coverage rate of 30.28
In the current campaign, the DGS began to use the annual estimates of the resident population released by the National Institute of Statistics for the calculation of vaccination coverage against influenza and covid-19, explained that the use of this information allows vaccination coverage to reflect “more up-to-date” the demographic evolution of the population residing in Portugal, “ensures the alignment of DGS indicators with official national statistics”.
The SNS acquired about 2.3 million doses of influenza vaccines of normal dose and another 369 thousand of high dose for the current campaign, which has as one of the news the extension of free vaccination to children between 2 and 4 years.
As for covid-19, the report reports that a total of 426,593 people have already received seasonal reinforcement, 243,102 in pharmacies and 183,491 in the SNS, with vaccination coverage being lower than that recorded for influenza in all age groups.
The highest vaccination coverage was found in the 85-year-old age group, with 18.55%, and the lowest in the 60- to 69-year-old age group, with 6.41%, indicate the DGS data.
The autumn-winter 2026-2027 seasonal vaccination campaign against flu and covid-19 will run until 31 March and has about 2,550 adherent pharmacies.
People aged 60 to 84 and aged 18 to 59 with at-risk pathology can be vaccinated in pharmacies.
People aged 70 to 84 can also be vaccinated in pharmacies against covid-19, as well as those aged 18 to 69 with risk diseases.