Ministry of Health anticipates Covid vaccination of military and security forces

The Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday the anticipation of the vaccination of the Armed Forces and part of the security and rescue forces, with the sending of doses this week to States and municipalities exclusively for the immunization of members of these segments who are acting directly in the actions. to tackle the pandemic.

Workers involved in the care, transport and rescue of patients will be vaccinated, as well as those who are working in the actions of vaccination and surveillance of social distancing measures, with direct and constant contact with the public, the ministry said.

“We decided to anticipate the vaccination of a portion of this group according to criteria that meet the National Vaccination Plan (PNI) against Covid-19, taking into account the role that each agent plays in combating the pandemic,” said the general coordinator of the PNI, Francieli Fontana, in a statement from the portfolio.

The security and rescue forces and the Armed Forces are already part of the priority groups defined in the PNI, which total a total of almost 80 million people. Currently, the first priority groups are being vaccinated, which include mainly the elderly and frontline health professionals.

The immunization campaign in Brazil has suffered since the beginning, in January, with the shortage of vaccines. According to the Ministry of Health, 14.4 million people have been vaccinated with the first dose to date, equivalent to 6.9% of the Brazilian population.