Category: Uncategorized

The Directorate-General for Consumers (DGC) and Advertising Self-Regulation (ARP) today released a guide on advertising communication in the context of covid-19 and recommend consumers “special attention” to misleading advertising disinfectants and masks.

In the guide, consumers are recommended to “pay special attention to advertising messages for cleaning products, hand sanitizers or protective masks, which may be false or misleading, as they claim characteristics or results that the products do not have”.

The DGC and the ARP also appeal not to believe in “content published or shared on websites and social networks that promote products or services that claim to have a cure for covid-19” and remember that “the dissemination of these contents it is a deceptive practice ”.

According to a statement released by the entities, the guide aims to inform and sensitize economic operators to the adoption of good commercial practices, which are compatible with the rights of consumers.

“DGC and ARP joined forces to remind all professionals in the sector the need for advertising to respect the legal and ethical rules in force, equally applicable in the digital environment, where social networks are included, conveying clear, true, understandable information and legible, to enable consumers to make informed choices ”, reads the note sent to the press.

The part aimed at consumers also includes some precautions to be taken when purchasing products or services and recalls the importance of confirming the veracity of campaigns to raise goods and financial donations, before making any contribution.

“With covid-19, we are faced with new challenges in multiple domains, advertising being no exception. In this sense, it is important to remember the rules and principles to which this modality of communication must obey, also emphasizing relevant aspects to which consumers must be particularly attentive ”, says, in a statement, the Secretary of State for Commerce, Services and Consumer Protection, João Torres.

The government official also states that “consumers cannot be diminished in their ability to choose and in their rights” and that companies “have a duty to maintain their communications in a transparent and loyal manner, ensuring and reinforcing the trust built with consumers. ”.

Portugal entered on May 3 in a calamity situation due to the pandemic, after three consecutive periods in a state of emergency since March 19.

This new phase of combating covid-19 provides for mandatory confinement for sick people and under active surveillance, the general duty of home collection and the mandatory use of masks or visors in public transport, public attendance services, schools and commercial establishments.

SEF will have simpler procedures for applications for the granting and renewal of residence permits, allowing “substantially” to reduce service times at the counters for around 250,000 foreign citizens, according to an order today published.

In a statement, the Foreigners and Borders Service states that the order envisages “mitigating the consequences that resulted from the health emergency situation, adopting exceptional and temporary measures that allow for a recovery of pending issues and an efficiency gain in the document management of foreign citizens”.

SEF states that, in the context of pending requests for renewal of residence permits, the citizen does not need to go to a service desk, simply by making the request on the SEF Portal.

Subsequently, SEF will carry out all security consultations to confirm the suitability of the applicant, as well as consultations with the databases necessary to assess the fulfillment, by the applicant, of its tax obligations and before Social Security, explains the SEF, adding that , after paying the fees, the citizen will receive the residence permit at his / her tax address.

In relation to requests for the granting of a residence permit with a visa waiver, citizens do not need to submit new documentary evidence, for the purpose, documents submitted together with the visa waiver request (expression of interest), regardless of expiration date, provided they are valid on the date of presentation, according to SEF.

With this measure, SEF foresees “a substantial reduction in the service times at the counter, which should increase from 40 to 15 minutes”.

However, according to a decree-law published this May, the approximately 130,000 immigrants who were provisionally settled in Portugal due to the covid-19 pandemic will continue in this situation until October 31.

The 130,000 foreign nationals who remained in good standing were those who had pending cases at SEF until March 18, when it was decided to declare a state of emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic.

With this temporary regularization, immigrants were granted access to health care, Social Security support or various rights, such as entering into a lease or employment contract.

The order published today by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Internal Administration, Modernization of the State and Public Administration and Labor, Solidarity and Security also states that the securities to be issued following decisions on requests that fall within the scope of the within the scope of this order and that they relate to minors.

The start of the trial of 12 people accused of being involved in the theft of 55 Glock weapons from the gunsmith of the PSP national directorate is scheduled for June 18, in the Lisbon judicial court.

According to the Citius portal, two sessions of the trial are already scheduled for the Campus of Justice, the second of which will take place on June 19th.

In this process, the Public Prosecutor’s Office charged 12 people with the theft of PSP weapons, whose crimes were committed between December 2015 and January 2017.

In the prosecution, the MP considers that PSP agent Luis Gaiba took advantage of the poor control of the gunsmith, of which he was responsible, to steal the weapons, estimated at around 20 thousand euros.

Luís Gaiba is accused of criminal association, arms trafficking and mediation, money laundering, possession of a prohibited weapon and embezzlement.

According to the MP, Luís Gaiba realized that the control of weapons was weakened, that his registration was not updated and that, due to the dispersion of the access keys to the facilities, there was no registration of access to the site.

The defects in supervision and control were used by the defendant to steal weapons and sell them in parallel circuits of arms and drug trafficking.

However, the agent, in an attempt that the suspicions of the disappearance of the weapons did not fall on him, denounced the weaknesses of the gunsmith to the PSP national leadership and accessed the database to find out which firearms were not distributed to other policemen .

Subsequently, the prosecution indicates, it initiated contacts with a group of people who could put the weapons in the illicit arms sales circuit.

Luis Gaiba, together with his wife, António Laranginha and João Paulino, these two also accused in the process of theft of military weapons, two storerooms from Tancos, formed a group, which also belonged to Mário Cardoso, Armando Barros and Manuel Neves.

The group, still according to the prosecution, sold the weapons to a group of people who were accused of drug trafficking in Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom and in whose processes it was possible to apprehend some of the pistols.

This case dates back to January 2017, when the disappearance of Glock weapons and their cases, two porters and cleaning kits was detected, after the seizure of a police firearm during a police operation that took place in Porto.

At the time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs requested an audit by the General Inspection of Administration to harmonize the security control mechanisms for the storage of arms and ammunition by security forces.

CC // SB

You see our work every day on Facebook; so we thought today we would take an opportunity to provide an insider´s view of the work being undertaken by our volunteers on a daily basis to get our reports to you.

A typical day at SCP consists of many specialist volunteers – including Maria, Dalia, Rolf, Daniel, Joan, Louise (and several others who prefer to be private) researching and sending reports to us during the day as news emerges in their areas which is then collated and edited by the core team (David, Elise and Chris) and either posted immediately or edited ready for the next day´s report.

As SCP now has 26,000 followers on Facebook, a significant 45% increase since the start of the pandemic. We now have to respond to a significant amount of posts and we understand the importance of this task for the communities.

Our Facebook posts are widely shared, with your help, and the highest reach was 78,219 at the introduction of the first state of Emergency and the second highest 69,621 on 11^th May. On average we reach about 31,000 per day.

The introduction to and main body of the daily SITREP report is compiled by David and Chris from reports from our volunteers and the Overseas Report written by Louise Birch are compiled over the day and following morning and posted – normally, the SITREP by 0930 latest and Overseas report by 1100. SCooP features as well of course, with poems provided by Julie.

So we do not forget our core responsibilities of crime prevention, Leanne prepares a weekly crime prevention and awareness report which is published on Thursdays

Throughout the day (and often late at night), our translators, Eliana, Clare and, Jenny, with the support of our proof reader Jennie, are available to translate any documentation, laws, guidance and advice by government and other agencies in Portugal which we then publish – often the first English translation available in Portugal.

Throughout the day, our Facebook moderators Eliana, Louise, David and Elise answer the numerous questions and comments posted in reaction to our publications and posts – right through to the evening.  This happens 7 days a week. In fact during March and May the number of responses we made was nearly 14,000 so you can see the enormity of this one task alone!

Trying to keep up to date with various laws is demanding and even in Portuguese can be complex. These are monitored daily, Lilia and Eliana providing assistance with translation and clarification.

All this information is uploaded onto our website by Elise and David, and over the last 12c weeks the average daily page visit is around 9000. Please therefore continue to visit our website to get the information and advice you need from official sources.

In the meantime, David is often in communication with government, police, civil protection and local government agencies several tones a day to confirm details before we post advice.

Gyms will reopen. An agreement has been made with the Directorate-General for Health – this is what will change:

These measures have not yet been finalised, but the President of the Association of Gymnasiums and Academies of Portugal has revealed that these are in line with the measures that were initially proposed by the Association. Now, it is left to for the authorities to announce that Gyms will re-open on June 1st.

There is already a consensus on the rules that will allow gyms to reopen, whilst coronavirus remains in the community. The Directorate-General for Health (DGS)  has completed their review of the proposed guidelines and have requested the views of the Association of Gyms and Academies of Portugal (AGAP), which will be in “total agreement”, as revealed by its President, José Carlos Reis.

“The suggested measures met our expectations and we are very happy with the report that was presented by the DGS. We agree with the extent of the measures presented and we will scrupulously comply with what the DGS decreed”, explained the President.

Even though these measures have not been finalised, AGAP says that they are “very close” to the proposals it had already submitted to the António Costa Government on April 16^th. Therefore, it is expected that the gyms will start to operate again, with limits to the space capacity, only by appointment and with restrictions regarding the users’ time in the gym. This has been clarified and is combined with the reinforcement of disinfection regimes of the gyms.

It is also expected that the use of changing rooms will be prohibited, at least in this first phase of reopening. The changing of clothes should only be carried out in the bathrooms.

Some of these measures were proposed by AGAP, which also suggested creating specific schedules for the elderly, prohibiting exercise performed in pairs and reduced group class sizes in order that a distance of four-square metres per person was safeguarded.

Although the measures proposed by the DGS are in line with the initial plan from AGAP, José Carlos Reis says that now all that remains is to confirm the order for all gyms to return to the new normal as of June 1st. For the Association’s President, all gyms are ready to re-open and will have confirmed to them the guidelines to which they must comply.

 

 

Personal protective equipment does not give any guarantee unless certified. Majority of the 100,000 masks seized since April were with false seals of conformity.

The new measures imposed by the covid-19 pandemic gave rise to a massive demand for masks of all types. But many, either surgical, or with particulate filters such as FFP, or so-called fabric social masks, do not offer any guarantee of protection against the spread of the disease.

For this reason, ASAE has been reinforcing inspections of factories, storekeepers, stores, pharmacies and also on internet sellers. On average, since the beginning of April, inspectors have seized about two thousand masks a day. Most have fake security certificates.

The verification of compliance with the technical specifications of personal protective equipment (PPE) available on the market has led ASAE’s special teams of inspectors to fine-tune about 1,000 economic operators from north to south of the country.

One of the biggest seizures took place in an operation in the Cantanhede area, where only one storekeeper had around 70,000 masks with particulate filters. Apparently, they all met safety requirements and were even sold with a certificate of conformity. But a rigorous inspection of the equipment’s characteristics revealed that the certificate was forged and the entire cargo was seized.

The authorities believe that the storekeeper may also have been duped by the importer or the manufacturer himself, located in Eastern European countries.

THREE TYPES OF OFFENSES

Throughout the various inspections, ASAE detected three types of crimes. From the outset, the “production and sale of FFP2 and FFP3 counterfeit masks, with the addition of proprietary international trademarks of PPE, which may mislead the consumer as to their authenticity and compliance with the degree of protection”. There is also the “production and sale of articles with falsified conformity seals / certifications” and also “protective masks (textile article) with the unlawful use / affixing of registered brands or logos (usually associated with traditional clothing brands) and that may not comply with the security requirements “, the source of the ASAE told JN.

The inspections also served to control essential products in a pandemic time, such as alcohol-gel, which, in some cases, did not have the amount of alcohol necessary for efficient disinfection.

COUNTERFEITING

Imitations for sale on social media are dangerous

Filter masks or surgical masks are not the only ones to be subject to counterfeiting. ASAE has already detected dozens of manufacturers and sellers of counterfeit masks sporting luxury clothing brands, football clubs or automobiles. In the past few days, ASAE has launched eight criminal cases for violating industrial property rights. These masks are mainly for sale on social networks and on ad sites.

The sellers call them personalized masks and their price ranges from three to 60 euros. Some of the pieces will be manufactured in Brazil and the sellers guarantee that they can get them to Portugal in less than a week. In some cases, verified by the JN, counterfeiters ensure that the masks meet all the safety requirements required by health authorities. But the guarantee is not certified by any official entity.

 

People arriving in the UK must self-isolate for 14 days from 8 June to help slow the spread of coronavirus, the government has said.

Travellers will need to tell the government where they will quarantine, with enforcement through random spot checks and £1,000 fines in England.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the measure would “reduce the risk of cases crossing our border”.

Lorry drivers, seasonal farm workers, and coronavirus medics will be exempt.

The requirement will also not apply to those travelling from the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

According to the Home Office, the new policy will be in place across the UK, although how it is enforced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be determined by the devolved administrations.

If a person does not have suitable accommodation to go to, they will be required to stay in “facilities arranged by the government” at the person’s own expense, according to Border Force chief Paul Lincoln.

‘Not shutting down’

Ms Patel told the daily Downing Street briefing the measures were not the same as completely shutting the UK border to visitors.

“We are not shutting down completely. We are not closing our borders,” she said.

And asked about the prospect of foreign holidays this summer, she added: “This is absolutely not about booking holidays. We want to avoid a second wave and that is absolutely vital.”

So-called “air bridges” – agreements with countries that have low infection rates allowing tourists to travel without quarantining – will not be in place initially, the government said.

The new measure, previously announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will be reviewed every three weeks once it is introduced.

But airlines have said a quarantine requirement would “effectively kill air travel” – and one airport boss described the plans as a “blunt tool” .

The government currently recommends international travel only when absolutely necessary, and nobody should travel if they display any coronavirus symptoms.

What does the new system involve?

Passengers arriving in the UK will be required to fill out an online locator contact form – providing details of where they will spend their 14 days in self-isolation.

 

The Home Office said the proposed accommodation will need to meet necessary requirements, such as a hotel or a private address with friends or family.

There will be a fine of £100 for failure to complete the form, and the Border Force will have the power to refuse entry to non-UK citizens who do not comply with the new regulations.

New arrivals will be told they may be contacted at any time during their quarantine and, in England, may be visited by public health authorities conducting spot checks.

They will be told to avoid public transport and travel to their accommodation by car “where possible”, and not to go out to buy food or other essentials “where they can rely on others”.

In England, a breach of self-isolation would be punishable by a £1,000 fixed penalty notice, or prosecution and an unlimited fine for persistent offenders.

 

 

The National Statistics Institute published a report on Wednesday 22^nd May that the covid-19 cases in Portugal was 29.1 per 10,000 inhabitants, an increase of 12% since May 6, according to INE data released this Friday.

In the North region, 36 municipalities registered figures above the national level.

Of these the most prominent with more than 50 confirmed cases per 10,000 inhabitants, were the municipality of Ovar (120.0); in  Aveiro District, the municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova (87.0) in Coimbra District, the municipalities of Valongo (77.4), Vale de Cambra (72.0), Matosinhos (71.4), Maia (66.9), Gondomar (64.1), Porto (62.6), Santo Tirso (56.9) and Vila Nova de Gaia (50.8).

Some municipalities in the Centro (12), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Lisbon, Loures and Amadora), Alentejo (Moura) and Autonomous Region of the Azores (the municipality of Nordeste) regions also had values ​​above the national average.

INE also points out that 179 of the country’s 308 municipalities had a confirmed number of cases per 10,000 inhabitants and population density below the national average.

Campsites in the Algarve have started to open to the public this week, with the care required by safety rules to combat the covid-19 pandemic.

The three Orbitur parks in the region have been operating since May 20, but the 15 belonging to the Association of Camping Sites in the Alentejo and Algarve (APCAA) will only open doors next Monday.

“We have been contacted by many customers who want to understand what measures are being taken and, after the explanation, are confident and make the reservation effective ,” revealed the manager of the camping site Valverde (Orbitur) in Praia da Luz, in Lagos municipality.

The first customers after reopening “have arrived and are expected more until the weekend” , which leaves Teresa Neto optimistic about the summer, despite knowing that the occupation will be “far from last year’s values”.

Considering that “people are in need of leaving home”, the manager expects, therefore, “a greater demand” by the Portuguese, even though she can only offer two thirds of the park’s total occupation.

During the state of emergency, reservations were cancelled for May and June, but “many remain” for July and August, said Teresa Neto, adding that the new appointments she has received for the next month are from both foreigners and Portuguese.

The size of the park “allows spacing between people, which is a great advantage”, and the adhesion to the ‘Safe & Clean’ seal gives guarantees in terms of “cleaning and sanitizing the changing rooms, after each use”, he said.

Only the social room, the playground, the pool and the restaurant “are still closed”, waiting for the “outline of the measures to be adopted” in order to be opened safely.

Already the Association of Alentejo and Algarve Campsites (APCAA) points to May 25 the opening of the parks “with all the required security guarantees” and a reduction in available area, as it provides a confluence “below normal “in June.

 

The National Institute of Medical Emergency transported about 12,643 users suspected of being infected with Covid-19, from the beginning of March to 17 May, which totals an average of 162 daily cases. The figures are part of INEM’s assessment of the activity in the context of the current pandemic caused by the new Sars-Cov-2, published on its own website.

With the transition to the Mitigation Phase in the response plan of the Directorate-General for Health to Covid-19, INEM recalls that any situation of shortness of breath screened by the Urgent Patients Guidance Centers (CODU) was considered a suspect in Covid- 19, forcing pre-hospital emergency medical professionals to be extra careful.

The transport carried out required a careful disinfection of the ambulances and their equipment, some of which were carried out in collaboration with the National Republican Guard, Armed Forces and other civil protection agents.

Since March 10, INEM has made available nursing teams to collect biological samples from households, homes or other institutions, to reduce the need to transport patients to hospitals. The six teams that INEM created for this purpose made a total of 7,497 sample collections for analysis to date.

With the objective of detecting suspected cases of infection with the new coronavirus early, INEM allocated teams to continental airports to monitor and evaluate suspected cases. From March 20 to May 10, 1,598 passengers were monitored, with 10 suspected cases detected. 1,916 passengers of the MSC Fantasia cruise ship, docked in Lisbon, were also checked by the workers of INEM, with no suspicious cases being detected.

INEM additionally operated support structures for hospital units, having set up screening tents at the São João Hospitals, in Porto, and Dona Estefânia, in Lisbon. He also assisted in the setting up of a “field hospital” in Ovar, with the provision of material and technical consultancy for the assembly of the provisional structure.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 18 INEM workers and collaborators tested Covid-19 positively. On May 17, only three professionals are infected, two of whom are service providers. All of these professionals were monitored by INEM teams created for this purpose, and none inspired care.

INEM also looked for solutions so that its workers could perform functions through the teleworking regime. Conditions were created for 200 professionals to work from home, not only workers back office , but also professionals CODU.

In addition to all the work carried out in the Covid-19 context, INEM, through the Integrated Medical Emergency System, continued to respond to daily work, sudden illnesses and accidents that did not stop happening, guaranteeing the provision of pre-emergency care. – hospital to all citizens who need them.