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The fire that occurred in the Serra da Lousã on July 11, 2020 resulted in the death of one firefighter and the injury of three other firefighters. It was considered that the fire would have started due to an electrical discharge associated with a thunderstorm and that the accident with the firefighters would have been related to a change in the direction of the wind, having also been reported the existence of a lot of smoke close to the ground. These possibilities were analyzed by IPMA through the assessment of weather conditions on the day of the fire.

The fire occurred on a day for which hot and thunderstorm meteorological warnings were issued, with strong atmospheric instability and the consequent generation of a strong convective system. The meteorological risk of fire was very high in the municipality of Lousã, the 4th highest level of a total of 5 levels.

A record of an atmospheric electrical discharge was identified at 18:20 local time (17:20 UTC), 100 m from the fire site, and the margin of error associated with this electrical discharge (in the order of 200 m) allows inferring that this discharge may have triggered the Lousã fire. This observational evidence is further supported by numerical modelling data.

It was also possible to identify that the convective system where the aforementioned electrical discharge originated produced, even during its movement towards the north and in the dissipation phase, a generalized subsidence in the fire region, consistent with the decrease in the height of the boundary layer, which may have relevant to the difficulty in dispersing fumes and gases close to the ground.

It is also not possible to exclude that during the period of time between the start of the fire and the moment when the accident with the firefighters occurred, significant variations in the wind direction may have occurred, consistent with the existence of downward currents associated with the convective cells that constituted the convective system, which influences both the evolution of the fire and the fumes it produces.

 

Read full report in Portuguese here 

News: 18th August 2020 The large commercial area Intermarché, in Leiria, was closed today after two positive cases of covid-19 were detected, Gonçalo Lopes, Mayor of Leria, told Lusa.

As the mayor explained, one of the Intermarché employees, located in Gândara, in the Union of Parishes of Marrazes and Barosa, in Leiria, tested positive for the infection with the new coronavirus “a week ago”.

“Now, someone else has tested positive, so the establishment has been closed and tests are being carried out on all employees and the site is being disinfected”, revealed Gonçalo Lopes.

The mayor stressed that “none of the other employees had any symptoms” of the disease.

“We will wait for the results of the other employees to define the respective strategies for controlling this situation”, he concluded.

According to today’s bulletin from the District Civil Protection Commission of Leiria, the district capital has recorded 181 cases and 156 recovered.

The number of deaths is not disclosed, because “for reasons of confidentiality and data protection, DGS does not provide disaggregated information when the number of infected people in the municipality is less than three”.

The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 774,832 deaths and infected more than 21.9 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.

An analysis of the databases of the WHO, the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed “a lot of inconsistencies” in the data related to covid- 19.

The news advanced by Público on Sunday reported “errors and discrepancies” between the platforms of the World Health Organization, the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which aggregate the data infections by the new coronavirus from several countries, with, for example, entering negative numbers in the records, or dates that do not match.

To Lusa, the researcher Jorge Bravo, who together with Afshin Ashofteh carried out the article published in the magazine of the International Association of Official Statistics, Statistical Journal, explained that “there were a lot of inaccuracies, a lot of inconsistencies between the three big databases”.

“Some countries, for example, reported negative deaths, which is an impossibility”, he added, adding that in the sample he studied, “which was already significant, there were, in some cases, significant inaccuracies”.

The study ran “from the beginning of the pandemic, until mid-April”, but the experts intend to “follow up on the initial study”, replicating what was done “with more months of observation and with more countries”.

“But what we found was that the errors did not diminish with the widening of the pandemic, on the contrary. With more countries reporting to WHO and these agencies, errors have increased. There could be less preparation in the initial phase and over time they were preparing and adjusting to needs, but what we found was that the more countries reported, the more problems we encountered ”, said the professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Jorge Bravo stressed that, “basically, the epidemiological models that are being used to take various measures, such as confinement, after deflation, such as the reopening of shops, schools, various measures that continue to be taken by governments and health mechanisms (…) Are estimated based on incorrect data ”.

“These procedures of loading databases, compiling information locally and then aggregating everything and reporting internationally, are processes that involve the human factor”, pointed out the expert as one of the reasons for the occurrence of these errors.

Another problem is that “not all countries were reporting data digitally, with a file that could be aggregated and have a continuous series”.

“There were countries that reported, like the DGS [Directorate-General for Health], only the reports, in pdf (…). There are more countries that do this procedure and, when transposing it to an aggregated database, it is very susceptible to errors, introduction, typing, etc. ”, he said.

The solution goes through a validation system, which “can be done using specialized people or including the new mechanisms, using artificial intelligence or computational algorithms, which cross data”.

“Often, the human factor is important to investigate, such as calling the country to alert. It is a normal process, carried out by bodies responsible for compiling statistical information. It is not clear that such gross errors in information have arisen here, and continue to do so ”, concluded the researcher.

Even so, Jorge Bravo believes that the institutions are “learning from what is happening” and “are more than ever aware of the importance of official information being transparent, timely and credible”.

The 221,000 users in Portugal of an application that allows consumers to take an active role in combating food waste have prevented 100,000 meals from being wasted since October.

The “Too Good To Go” app connects consumers to establishments that want to reduce and monetize their daily surplus, channelling it towards a valid consumption alternative, allowing a second chance for food to be consumed in perfect conditions.

According to a press release from this social impact company whose mission is to combat food waste, users can purchase quality meals at affordable prices, contributing to a system of non-waste and circular economy.

Altogether 100,000 meals were saved from the waste, which is equivalent to 250 tons of CO2 that were not released into the atmosphere, if these meals were wasted, the equivalent of 655 flights from Lisbon-London.

The application is available in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, in the Algarve and more recently in the cities of Braga and Coimbra.

The “Too Good To Go” app appeared in Portugal in late October 2019 and has a community of 221,000 users and 735 partners, from catering to large groups in the food industry.

In the application, users can buy what they call ‘magic boxes’ – with surprise content because it is impossible to predict waste in detail – choosing the establishment they like best, reserving in the application and collecting at a scheduled time.

Before asking for his ‘Magic Box’, the user can filter his choices in the application and find out which establishment interests him most, based on the usual of each space, the options being diverse and varying between Chinese, Japanese food, Italian, Portuguese, vegetarian, vegan, among many other food products.

Payment is made through the application, and the receipt is generated at the time of collection, at the place and time established and indicated on the application, by the establishment itself.

In line with national success, are the global numbers of Too Good To Go which in a universe of 15 countries, already has a community of 23 million users and more than 50 thousand establishments, which have already saved around 43 million meals.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one third of all human food production is wasted.

 

The stadiums of Luz and José Alvalade will host the quarter-final, semi-final and Champions League games, but without the public inside.

The Public Security Police (PSP) assumed, this Tuesday, to be preparing for the ‘final to eight’ of the Champions League of football, in Lisbon, in a “different scenario from the usual”, due to the non-presence of fans in stadiums.

In a press conference, the commander of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the PSP, Paulo Pereira, stressed that “the security device adapts to the non-presence of the public in stadiums”, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The stadiums of Luz and José Alvalade will host the quarter-final, semi-final and Champions League games between Wednesday 11th and August 23rd.

“The operation that is being set up aims at public order, the peacefulness and security of the games and all the activities related to the game. In this way, the main points of this operation go through the hotel units, training places, the stadiums stage of the games, in its outer and inner perimeter, and, finally, the city of Lisbon, where there will be a permanent observation of all activities and accompaniment of fans “, he explained.

The PSP official explained that the approach to supporters will be “informative”, seeking to respond, “to the needs for guidance and informing about the health rules in force during the pandemic state”.

The superintendent of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the PSP Luís Elias reinforced that this is a “low profile operation”, since the competition takes place without the presence of a public, but he warned that there are areas to be reinforced due to this new context.

“It involves planning in a different context but concentrates on reinforced security measures. The Special Police Unit will guarantee the personal safety of the eight teams, and will focus on stadiums and training sites, but also covers spaces such as the airport in a preventative approach, to prevent public disorder and the public coming into close proximity of the team members, which may put the safety of the people involved in the tournament at risk “, it was stated.

As for the presence and movement of fans, the PSP revealed that a security perimeter will be created around the stadiums, which will control the circulation of traffic at certain times, and that at this moment it is in contact with its European counterparts to gather as much information as possible. Information regarding how many and which fans will choose to travel to Portugal to support their teams.

Roberto Domingues, commissioner of the PSP, admitted that the available information is being worked on vigorously and did not want to predict a possible number of fans expected in the Portuguese capital.

“The information we have is the result of a thorough analysis, and this information will continue to be collected throughout the tournament. The presence of foreign supporters is expected, and will arrive via air and land,” said the commissioner.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the suspension of almost all championships, as well as European competitions, leading UEFA to decide to conclude the Champions League in an ‘eight final’, with quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals to be played at the same time.

Lisbon, with the Estádio da Luz, which will host the final on August 23, and the José Alvalade Stadium, was the city chosen to host the games in this unprecedented ‘final to eight’ tournament, which was to be held in Istambul.

 

 

The Minister of Health today shared the reservations of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the vaccine for covid-19 announced by Russia, saying that “safety and effectiveness” cannot be sacrificed in the name of speed.

“It is very important to speed up the research process in relation to the discovery of an effective vaccine, but in this process, we cannot sacrifice either safety or therapeutic efficacy,” said Marta Temido at the pandemic follow-up press conference.

The minister indicated that with regard to the Sputnik V vaccine, the first for covid-19 to be announced, “there are facts that have been reported, that phase 3 [of testing in the community] may not have been fully completed”.

On the other hand, “no one is available to waste the opportunity to have an instrument that helps to respond to this disease”, he admitted.

Marta Temido stated that the Portuguese medicine regulatory authority (Infarmed) is “working with the European Medicines Agency, integrated in a competent, trained network and with all the means at its disposal to ensure that Portugal is among the countries that will have access what will become an effective vaccine for covid-19 ”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) received with caution on Tuesday the news that Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against covid-19, stressing that it must follow the defined prequalification and review procedures.

“Accelerating progress should not mean compromising security,” said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic at a press conference, adding that the organization is in contact with Russian and other authorities to analyze the progress of different investigations. relatively ongoing vaccines.

The Russian vaccine, whose registration was announced Tuesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a meeting with the cabinet of ministers, was not among the six that WHO said last week were more advanced.

The Geneva-based organization cited, among the six, three vaccine candidates developed by Chinese laboratories, two from the United States (from the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna) and the British one developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford.

According to Putin, the Russian vaccine is “effective”, has passed all the necessary tests and makes it possible to achieve “stable immunity” against covid-19, and is expected to enter into circulation as of 1 January 2021.

However, many scientists, at home and abroad, questioned the decision to register the vaccine before the scientists completed the so-called Phase 3 study.

This phase usually takes several months and involves thousands of people and is the only way to prove that the experimental vaccine is safe and works.

The Fruit Square of Caldas da Rainha returned on a rainy day and marked by the division of opinions between those who preferred to remain in a closed space and those who wanted to return to under coloured awnings.

“I want to sell, whether it is here or at Expoeste, it doesn’t matter to me,” says Sandra Silvestre, who has been a saleswoman for the past 11 years in the same square where she helped her mother, who sold green soup there for half a century.

But the indifference does not last long and at the same time that she is cutting the cabbage for soup there, she admits that she “already missed” the market on the centenary tray that the covid-19 pandemic forced her to abandon in March.

In April, the chamber transferred to Expoeste – Pavilhão de Feiras the market that, since the 15th century, has been held in the city center and has become a tourist attraction in the city.

Four months later, the sound of setting up the awnings began again at Praça da República, which started at 5:00 am, followed by the commotion that accompanies the arrival of the sellers, the unloading of products and the setting up of stalls.

Tradition sends that all this bustle is concluded until 07:00. But today, it was 9:00 am and the square was still sealed with 60 metal stalls decorated with images of vegetables, maintaining only three entrances, controlled by security guards who check who enters and ensure that they only do it after disinfecting their hands.

“We are in an exercise of adapting to the new rules”, explains the market councilor, Pedro Raposo, who from an early age checks details, listens to suggestions and assesses how the first day of the square is going.

The return “was not consensual”, says the councilman, remembering that there were petitions to defend the square in its place of origin and others to defend the permanence in Expoeste.

Luís and Fernanda Mendes returned in disgust to the place they have been visiting for more than 20 years.

He argued with the council that the square should remain “until the end of the year” at Expoeste, “where there are many more conditions and the stalls do not have to be set up daily”.

He argumed: “from the first day we are already working in the rain, the lack of parking keeps customers away and that from tourism and homesickness is very good, but it passes quickly and in a while it will be seen that the future can not be so good for us ”.

Beaten, but not convinced by the decision of the municipality, they are suggesting other spaces in the city to join this market and the fish market and other uses such as “selling typical cakes and handicrafts” in the centenary square.

On the other side of the board, António Pereira agrees that the return “was worse in terms of quality of life” and that “even the clientele has changed”. At Expoeste “they were more housewives”, on the board, “more restoration”, but it is certain that “for the first day, even with rain, it is going well and there are many people wanting to go back to the square”.

Florinda Figueiredo, a customer of the square for more than 40 years, explains this desire by the “feeling of freedom to buy outdoors” and by the “quality of the region’s products”. But, still extending the arguments in favor of the square in the center of the city to the conviction that “the local commerce has suffered a lot in the last months”.

“Not to mention the tourist value and the people, even foreigners, that this movement and color attract”, he adds.

Like Lídia and António Nunes, who live in Switzerland, and who for 15 years have spent holidays in the municipality of Caldas da Rainha, in the district of Leiria, and shop in the square.

“While we are here we come to the square almost every day”, they say, devaluing the lack of parking or the atmospheric rigors in favor of “a single market, with a life and a quality” that you cannot find elsewhere and that “has to be maintained as ex-tourist attractions ”.

Or was the square not one of the reasons that led them to fall in love with the city and to buy a holiday home, to which they return every year ”.

And they are not the only ones, underlines Lídia, adding that the parents “live in Lisbon and often come by bus, on purpose, to shop in this square”.

Until the end of August, sellers and buyers have guaranteed that in the usual square, new rules of distance and limited capacity to 100 people must now be complied with, controlled by security guards through a mobile application.

After that, councilor Pedro Raposo admits “to remove the bays and the board to be completely open again, at least from Monday to Thursday”. But that “will depend on how people behave in terms of respecting the standards relating to the pandemic.”

Today, rainy Wednesday and with 50 vendors on the board, “everything is going well”. But, says the councilman, “on Saturday, the busiest day and with about a hundred sellers, you will see what adjustments will be needed” so that the fruit square does not have to leave the city center again.

Between April and June, only one in 20 people at Porto airport travelled with TAP, which now has a 5% market share and went down to the eighth place of airlines with the most passengers.

According to the latest report by the National Civil Aviation Authority ( ANAC ) on movements in Portuguese airports in the second quarter of the year – in the months of April, May and June, during the state of emergency and the post-confinement period -, there was a “drop in traffic in the order of 91% in number of movements and 97.5% in number of passengers carried”.

” Faro airport showed the biggest drop in the number of movements (-97%), as opposed to Ponta Delgada airport (-80%). Regarding passengers transported, less than 388 thousand (15 million in 2019) the breaks were, of course, more homogeneous and over 96% in all major national airports “, can be read in the report.

Therefore, in the same period of 2019, 15.3 million passengers passed through Portuguese airports , a number that has fallen this year to less than 388 thousand .

All airlines lost passengers, but TAP lost even more market share at the three main national airports. In Porto , the Portuguese airline now has a 5% market share of passengers handled, representing 1 in 20 travelers, well below the 19% of 2019.

In the list of airlines with more passengers at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport , TAP went from second to eighth place , being overtaken by Swiss Air (22%), Ryanair (19%), Lufthansa (12%), Luxair (10% ), Air France (9%), Transavia (8%) and Easyjet (6%).

In Lisbon , TAP remained the airline with the most passengers carried, despite having dropped from 51% in 2019 to 18% in 2020. In Faro , it also lost market share and left the list of the ten largest airlines flying to the Algarve . Just in Funchal the TAP has increased the market share of 29% to 80% .

SITUATION REPORT 1730 HRS

There are more than 1500 operatives and about 20 aerial means that this Thursday are fighting 14 active fires. None of these has yet reached the level of a major incident. The most significant are:

PORTO DE MÓS

The largest fire is in a bush area in the municipality of Porto Mós, in Leiria, mobilizing 207 operatives, 61 vehicles and two aerial means.

Two people were slightly injured when fighting the flames that spread in Marinha da Mendiga, in the Natural Park of Serras de Aire and Candeeiros.

According to the District Command of Relief Operations (CDOS) of Leiria, there is a record of the withdrawal of combat from a forest sapper, due to smoke inhalation and exhaustion, and a fireman, with slight burns on the lower limbs.

In Guarda, in the municipality of Sabugal, 187 operatives, 54 terrestrial means and three aerial means fight the flames in a bush area since around 13:45.

“The fight against flames is evolving favourably and there are no houses at risk,” he explained to the Lusa agency, a source in the District Command for Relief Operations (CDOS) in Guarda.

ERNANCELHE

In Viseu, the fight against a fire in Sernancelhe that is active since the early afternoon in the bush area has 181 operational, 62 land and three air means.

The fire, which spreads in an area of ​​brush and forest, is worrying the authorities and is approaching homes. As a precaution, some elderly people were removed from their home.

The strong wind that is felt in the place is making it difficult to fight the flames.

ALIJÓ

In Alijó, Vila Real district, 166 operatives, 51 land means and three air means are mobilized to fight a fire in a forest area, which also broke out in the early afternoon.

The alert was given by 12:00 and the initial attack was “very muscular”, having mobilized the means available to the place where the very strong wind and high temperatures represent one of the greatest difficulties in fighting fire.

The source said that the fire surrounded the industrial zone of Alijó and that the operatives managed to protect this area.

The fire has a front that burns with some intensity in a rocky area of ​​forest and difficult to access by land.

FUNDÃO

In Fundão, in the district of Castelo Branco, there is a fire in a forest stand with 196 operational ones, 43 land means and eight air means. This fire started around 14:00.

Praia da Nazaré was today banned from bathing by the Regional Health Authority, after the water quality analysis revealed microbiological values above the reference parameters for this beach, the water being unsuitable for bathing, informs the National Maritime Authority.

The Captain of Porto and Local Commander of the Maritime Police of Nazaré gave instructions to raise the red flag, alerting the population to the indications in force.