When does flu vaccination open in Portugal this autumn? The rule that sets the date is still not out
The winter immunisation rule for babies was signed on 2 September and starts the programme on 16 September. A year ago today, the flu and covid-19 rules were already published. On Wednesday the DGS list still had neither.
Part of the winter campaign already has a date. Portugal’s Directorate-General of Health signed the rule for seasonal respiratory syncytial virus immunisation in children on 2 September, and it opens the programme on 16 September, running through to 31 March 2027. A catch-up window runs from 16 September to 30 October for babies missed at birth. The strategy went universal this year: every healthy child born from 1 April 2026 onwards is eligible, since they are entering their first RSV season.
The rest of it is missing. We went to the DGS list of norms and normative circulars on Wednesday, and there is no seasonal flu vaccination rule there for autumn-winter 2026-2027, and none for covid-19 either. The most recent are still 009/2025 and 010/2025.
Look at the dates on those two. Both are 9 September 2025, exactly one year before the day we ran the check.
Why the date matters
The rule is not paperwork. It is the document that says who gets the vaccine free and from which day they can go and get it. Last year the campaign opened on 23 September, fourteen days after the rules appeared. If that gap repeats, the equivalent date has already gone.
The groups who usually get the flu jab free are well known: people aged 60 and over, children between 6 and 23 months, pregnant women, residents and staff of care homes, patients with risk conditions and health workers. That is last year’s list, though, and confirming or changing it is exactly what the new rule has to do.
The money was settled a fortnight ago. The 25 August order set €3.15 as what the state pays each pharmacy per dose administered, with an overall ceiling of €7.6m. The price was agreed before the eligibility was.
None of this points to a problem. The rules could land this week and the campaign open on its usual late-September date. But anyone planning around the health service, which has shown it can move quickly when it wants to, as with hospital teleconsultations now running at nearly eight times pre-pandemic levels, is one document away from knowing when to offer an arm.
Photo: Whispyhistory / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
