At the final press conference after the closing of the XIII Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), António Costa recalled that Portugal had pledged to offer 5 percent of the total vaccines, but the bills most recent allow four times as much to be made available.
In the case of the PALOP and Timor-Leste, "we will triple and go from one million to three million the number of vaccines to be distributed. According to the calculation we have of vaccines that we will be able to provide", it will be possible to donate "one total of four million vaccines".
"Therefore, we have another million that we will allocate to other programs, namely we can extend to Brazil, to the countries of Latin America or we can simply integrate the Covax mechanism, without any specific recipient", said António Costa.
"In the case of the PALOP and Timor-Leste, we have tripled our commitment" because the "virus knows no borders".
After Portugal fulfills its "community immunization target", if "we do not move forward with immunization on a global scale, none of us is truly protected", explained António Costa.
"This is a very significant reinforcement of our international cooperation. [...] we have been acquiring new vaccines because, with the restrictions that different countries have imposed and which do not completely coincide, there are vaccines that are available today", said.
"Part of the new acquisitions we have used to accelerate our vaccination process, but also in our vaccine portfolio there are vaccines that we will not use and that we will naturally make available", favoring "the countries that are closest to us", said António Costa.
The Portuguese Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, highlighted that Portugal has given other types of support besides the supply of vaccines, such as painkillers for Brazil, or the provision of technical support, fans, personal protective equipment, beds, training, consumables and resources for clinical tests and analyses.
Santos Silva also highlighted the support for research and production of vaccines in the Covax mechanism, which has already led to an investment of 10 million euros by Portugal.
In the case of bilateral relations within the Portuguese-speaking world, the minister highlighted that Portuguese solidarity aimed to "cut critical points with which the partners were confronting", giving the example of the supply of anesthetics to Brazil, at the height of the pandemic.
"So far, in this phase of support for technical equipment, testing and training professionals, we have invested around 5.6 million euros, to which naturally adds the cost of the vaccines that we are donating and will continue to donate", said Santos Silva.
"During the month of July, the first phase for all partner countries until we reach the Government's goal now set at three million" of vaccines will end - all that remains is to be sent to Timor-Leste which follows tomorrow [Sunday], he added.
The first shipment to Cape Verde followed in May, but "it is not possible to define a precise timetable because it depends on the pace of supplies" and "the vaccination strategy itself" in Portugal.
Portugal's objective is to "massify during this second semester the process of vaccines and support to member states in the administration", joining efforts of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health and National Defence.
On a diplomatic level, Portugal has "taken advantage of the fact that other European countries are finding, in accordance with the determinations of the respective health authorities, that they lack specific vaccines and an excess of vaccines from another brand", he said.
Santos Silva added that the Portuguese government will purchase 200,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from Hungary, which will serve to reinforce the donation to African countries, he explained.
In addition, Portugal will help transport vaccines offered by Slovenia to Cape Verde. "That's what the Europa team is called", summarized Santos Silva.
