Portugal winding down military-led COVID team

Portugal is winding up its military-led vaccine task force after almost reaching its target of fully inoculating 85% of the population against COVID-19.

The task force, led for the past eight months by a senior naval officer from a NATO building near Lisbon, is to be replaced by three teams reporting to the Health Ministry.

Portugal's vaccination drive e rollout is the most advanced in the world, with 84.88% of the country's 10.3 million people have received shots, according to Our World in Data.

Portugal is scrapping most of its pandemic restrictions starting Friday.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa said many people deserved credit for the country's expeditious vaccine rollout, but he singled out Portugal's acceptance of vaccinations as the prime reason for success.

Portugal has no significant anti-vaccination movement and is one of the European Union's leading countries in terms of vaccine uptake for illnesses such as measles and influenza.

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