Archives: Situation Reports

Situation Reports news and reviews

Algarve Situation Report, Saturday 20th March 2021.
Covid-19: MotoGP and Formula 1 without an audience is “overzealous” – hoteliers
Albufeira, Faro, 19th March 2021 (Lusa) – The possibility that Portugal’s MotoGP and Formula 1 grand prizes may not have an audience is “an excess of zeal”, considered today the president of the main Algarve hotel association, defending its realization with limited capacity.
The president of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), Elidérico Viegas, reacted thus to a news item from the newspaper Expresso, that points to the Government’s intention to prevent the presence of spectators at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which takes place between 30th April and May 2nd, in the Algarve.
“There seems to be an excess of zeal on the part of the Government, since, on the one hand, it authorizes events and the holding of events such as weddings indoors, and on the other hand it does not allow the attendance of some sporting events, especially football and the Formula 1 and MotoGP grand prizes”, said the associative leader to the Lusa agency.
The absence of an audience on the stands of the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, in Portimão, as a measure to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, was confirmed by a Government source to the newspaper Expresso and, according to Elidérico Viegas, “calls into question the coming of many tourists foreign and national”.
According to the news today from that newspaper, “until the end of this period of lack of definition”, events such as the final games of the 1st football league and the Formula 1 Grand Prix “will not have an audience”, unlike what happened last year, in this case Formula 1.
In response RTA, AMAL, AIHSA, AHETA AND NERA find F1 strange without an audience after “months of work with public entities”
The five Algarve entities say that it was “with surprise” that they saw in the media today the disclosure of an alleged impediment to the public’s presence in the Portuguese Grand Prix of Formula 1, which will be held in the Algarve on the 2nd May.
They are surprised at what happened, as they did not receive any official communication from the Government regarding this decision. As explained in a statement, “for months now”, they have been working with the DGS, the Regional Health Authority and the security forces and Civil Protection to ensure that the F1 Grand Prix of Portugal takes place with all the security conditions for both residents and visitors: “And nothing points to such an eventuality (absence of public)”.

Covid-19 / One year: Food support is still vital for many families in the Algarve.
Faro, 20th Mar 2021 (Lusa) – One year after the beginning of the first mandatory confinement to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, food support in the Algarve is still vital for many families to have access to daily meals.
The region’s economic dependence on the tourism sector and restrictions on international travel have forced many companies to close their doors, resort to lay-offs or lay off workers, increasing unemployment.
Ana (fictitious name) worked at Faro airport, but was discharged in August and stopped earning the “little more than a thousand euros” she received each month. At the age of 40, with two children and bills to pay, she was forced to “live with family members” and ask for food support.
“It was complicated. We had meals with sausages and eggs, more basic things, because the money doesn’t stretch” she reveals, while waiting at the door of the Refood institution, in Faro, to collect the goods she takes home, “twice a week”.
Unemployment also forced her to take her daughter out of kindergarten to “save 250 euros”, but, in spite of her current situation, she was surprised by a Social Security letter in December to re-frame her children “from step A to B”, which implies a “reduction in family allowance” and the “school support” that I received.
Read the full story here.

Covid-19: Algarve achieved objective to avoid hospital rupture – regional coordinator.
The Algarve managed to avoid hospital rupture at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, fulfilling the main objective of the authorities, having also welcomed patients from other areas of the country, the secretary of state coordinating the pandemic in the region said today.
In a hearing with all the regional coordinators held today in the Assembly of the Republic, Jorge Botelho, who is Secretary of State for Decentralization and Local Administration, said that the peak of contagions in the region occurred on January 20th, but health services managed to avoid a breakdown, after a pandemic start with “ups and downs”, an “especially calm” summer and a “worsening” in October.
“I would say that the big goal we always had was that the cases identified in Intensive Care and people who had to go to the hospital never went through what the regional health services could support. And, fortunately, the Hospital [Centro Hospitalar] Universitário do Algarve [CHUA] managed to somehow respond to the needs of the population, activating the four phases”, he said.
With phase four of the CHUA Contingency Plan, a response unit to Covid-19 was opened at Portimão Arena, which has since been deactivated, which received “170 patients” and “104 were in support of people from other parts of the country”, such as the Alentejo or Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, quantified.
Jorge Botelho said that the “articulation” between entities was a constant and that the Regional Public Health did not follow the options of other regions and “did not resort” to “army trackers or complementary services”, because “he understood that in the region it was possible to resolve the question”.

The best film of a regional tourist destination in the world is Algarve.
The film of the promotional campaign “The Algarve is well for you” won the Golden Star in the international category “Tourist Destinations – Regions” of «The Golden City Gate 2021», film and multimedia festival of tourism held within the scope of ITB Berlin, the largest tourism fair in the world, which this year takes place in a completely virtual format”, RTA announced in a statement.
Produced by New Light Pictures for Turismo do Algarve, “The Algarve looks good” was chosen by the festival jury as the best in the world, surpassing the remaining films from regional destinations in Berlin, Germany – one of the most important tourist markets for the Algarve, with an annual record of approximately two million overnight stays in the region’s hotels in the pre-pandemic period.
RTA explains that created with the objective of motivating national and foreign tourists to enjoy summer holidays in the region, reinforcing confidence in the «Algarve» brand and the notoriety of the main tourist destination in the country, the campaign features a motivational film starring one of today’s most successful international travel influencers, @explorerssaurus, “who share unique experiences in exceptional places scattered throughout the region, such as waterfalls, picturesque villages, long sandy beaches and crystal clear or more remote waters and hidden between cliffs “, states the same document.
For the president of Turismo do Algarve, João Fernandes, “the distinction has a special flavour, as it is the international recognition of the work done in the tourism promotion of the region, and makes us continue to believe that everything that happened in the last year will not prevent you from coming back in force. Very soon we will be able to discover how well this Algarve is and enjoy the vast tourist offer of the destination. This award, within the scope of ITB Berlin, reinforces the message that the region is prepared to receive tourists from different origins in safety”.
RTA recalls that the film had already been awarded at ART & TUR – International Tourism Film Festival 2020, which took place in Viseu, and at Finisterra – Arrábida Film Art & Tourism Festival 2020, in Sesimbra.

Portugal Situation Report, Wednesday 17th March 2021

Introduction

It is all about Risk

Good morning. Today’s introduction is all about risk – in this case in three areas. The first of these is the decision by Portugal to what is now described (by the vaccination co-ordinator), as “a pause” for a short while in the administering of the AstraZeneca vaccine, following reports of 37 cases of severe blood clots in people overseas, discovered sometime after they had received the vaccine. This was taken as a precautionary measure and follows similar moves in 12 other countries. AstraZeneca said there have been 37 reports of blood clots out of more than 17 million people vaccinated in the 27-country EU and Britain. If correct, the chances of you having a blood clot are one in every 629,620. The drug maker said there is no evidence the vaccine carries an increased risk of clots.

As of the time of reporting, no connection between the two has been established and in fact evidence so far is that the incidence of clots is much lower than would be expected to occur naturally in a general population of this size.

Nevertheless, there has been considerable worry on social media, questioning why the pause/suspension is needed if the risks are so low and the impact this may have on the rollout, at a time when all efforts need to be made to accelerate the process. Naturally there are many thinking that this is a political decision. However, if Portugal had continued and the rest of Europe had not I guess there would be many questioning if Portugal was putting people at risk.

The Prime Minister has explained the importance of “people understanding what is happening”: “the suspensions are only provisional and even today [Tuesday] the World Health Organization is discussing the known data, the European Medicines Agency will pronounce until the end of the week. It makes sense to suspend for three or four days so that the process can continue later”.

This is why understanding risk is important and even if a connection was established, just 37 cases out of 17 million people vaccinated, it means that the risk is far outweighed by the far higher risk of contracting Covid-19 by not being vaccinated. It is important to be guided by science not social media hysteria.

Another topic of risk this time in the rate of transmission Rt. We should not have Rt above 1, although the likelihood is that this is impossible to achieve permanently. At some point we will have few cases resulting in this threshold being exceeded. So the objective is clear: we must do everything to maintain a low incidence. To do this we cannot let our guard down and we must have an accurate “perception of risk” at all times especially what actions increase risk and those that mitigate risk.

Things normally start to go wrong when this perception is lost. It is very important to be aware of the risks and that there will be consequences if our behaviour changes in a way that is not conducive to minimizing risk – social gatherings, for instance.

In the de-confinement plan, presented on Thursday by the Prime Minister, the relaxation of measures in the reopening on April 5th and 19th and on May 3rd will be reviewed, whenever Portugal exceeds “120 new cases per day per 100 thousand inhabitants in 14 days” or whenever the transmissibility index (Rt) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, exceeds 1. Latest figures show a case rate of 90 per 100,000 and an Rt of 0.79.

The last risk area is fire risk. This is the time of year when many people in rural areas will be undertaking controlled burns of heaped and piled rubbish and, mainly farmers, are undertaking the controlled burning of scrub land.

We say “controlled” because it is a fact that, in a typical year, over half of such burns became “out of control” and lead to a fire where firefighters and other emergency services are deployed.

As the weather becomes dryer and warmer (as it is today) the risk increases, so it is important to be aware of what regulations are in place and how to register a burn or seek authorisation, as the case maybe. If these are not followed there are heavy fines.

Lastly, we have to once again remind a few people concerning the use of our Facebook Page. The page is there to provide the best sourced information in the area of safety and security to help people enjoy quality of life, especially in these difficult times. Although there are many challenges we will come through these. The last thing anyone needs is to be confronted with negativity which will not make people feel any better.

We therefore request people to read the “About Us” section on the use of our Facebook page, particularly with regards to unsourced comments and claims, personal argument, fake news and unrelated provocative comments, which detract from the topic and creates more work for us as ‘administrators’. We will remove these in the interests of the majority of readers, who are seeking accurate information and informed content. If the small minority wish to engage in personal argument there are Facebook groups available more suited for this purpose. “Words do Matter” so please bear in mind the feelings of others when commenting.

Finally, a reminder that the new State of Emergency law is now in effect and we have consolidated the measures and the de-confinement plan into a single page on our website which can be downloaded here. We hope you find this useful.

Finally a Happy St Patrick’s Day – Stay Safe

Headlines

“I’m with you, I also got the AstraZeneca vaccine. I look forward to the second dose”: Costa asks for calm

“I am with you, I also took the first dose of the vaccine. I look forward to the second. ” That was how António Costa ended a short statement to journalists this Tuesday in Porto. At issue is the temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine, announced less than 24 hours ago. The Prime Minister appealed for calm, recalling that he himself had been vaccinated with the therapy from the British pharmaceutical company.

“All the scientific evidence shows that the vaccine is safe and effective. I say this with the peace of mind that I am being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. I already took my first dose and I am waiting for the second one in May”, he started by saying. “I hope that everything will be clarified and my conviction is that everything will be clarified. The available scientific information shows this and the Governments, including ours, have taken a preventive decision”, he continued.

The Prime Minister considered it important that “people understand what is happening”: “the suspensions are only provisional and even today [Tuesday] the World Health Organization is discussing the known data, the European Medicines Agency will pronounce until the end of the week”. It is based on this calendar that António Costa says he believes that by the end of the week there should be a final decision.

“It makes sense to suspend for three or four days so that the process can continue later”, he defended, appealing to calm from those who have already been vaccinated and the patience of those who now have the vaccination process delayed for a few weeks.

Covid-19 DGS

DGS reported yesterday the latest figures concerning Covid-19 with continuing downward trends namely:

Confirmed Cases: 814.897 (+ 384 / + 0.05 %)

Number of admitted: 955 (-41 /-4.12 %)

Number of ICU admitted: 213 (-18 /-7.79 %)

Deaths: 16.707 (+ 13 / + 0.08 %)

Recovered: 762.961 (+ 1173 / + 0.15 %)

Active cases: 35,229 (- 802 / -2.2%)

This is analysed as:

– Second lowest deaths since 17th October; third lowest new cases since 1st September; recovered 3 times new cases and for 44 consecutive days, the number of recovered patients exceeds that of new infections.

There are also the lowest number in hospital since 13th October and 5832 less compared to number in hospital 1st Feb; lowest in ICU since 23rd October 2020 a decreased by 75.3% since 1st February’ Lastly the number of active cases lowest since 14th October, decreasing for 40 consecutive days and over 146,394 since 31st January

Despite all this good news it is important not to let our guard down at this crucial time. Those in hospital and ICU remain high. This means complying with the rules in place, – wearing face masks, social distancing, hygiene and no social gatherings.

Health

Covid-19. New pandemic monitoring bulletin to be published every Friday.

The Directorate-General for Health (DGS), in collaboration with the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), will start to publish a weekly monitoring report on the evolution of Covid-19 every Friday. According to DGS, this bulletin “will include the indicators described in the Red Lines document”, prepared by the group of experts and which lists a series of parameters considered essential to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in Portugal.

DGS confirms that these indicators will be: the incidence at 14 days, the national R (t) and by region, the number of patients in Intensive Care Units at national level, the proportion of national positivity (that is, the percentage of results positive in the total of tests performed), the proportion of case isolation and tracking of contacts by region, and also the proportion of virus variants considered most worrying (also by region).

Of these indicators, the incidence, the Rt and the number of beds in intensive care were considered by the experts to be the three main parameters.

In addition to this new report, the risk matrix that the Prime Minister presented last Thursday will be released daily, “with the situation report of Covid-19, which will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when updating the R (t) ”, details the DGS.

In the document ‘on the red lines’, presented at the last meeting at Infarmed and meanwhile publicly released, the group of experts argued that the proposed indicators should be “widely publicized”, as read in the report. “The epidemiological situation and the indicators mentioned here must be accompanied by the periodic issuance of a risk assessment document for qualitative interpretation and also be able to feed the correct risk communication by the authorities and political actors”.

Until now, Rt was only released once a week by INSA (on Friday). However, the indicator was already calculated every two days, although it was only released internally.

Deaths from Covid-19

Covid-19 / One year: More than half of all deaths in Portugal have occurred since January.

The number of deaths from Covid-19 in Portugal from the beginning of the year to 10 March amounts to 9,642, which corresponds to 58% of the total fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data officers.

In 2020, 6,993 deaths were recorded from Covid-19, but the 5,805 deaths in January – the most tragic month in Portugal so far – added to 3,558 fatalities in February and 279 in the first 10 days of March, mean that 2021 account for more than half of the total for this period (16,635).

The data was requested by Lusa to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), on the day that marks the first year of the first death in Portugal caused by the new coronavirus, on March 16th, 2020.

At the same time, the entity led by Graça Freitas specified that, since the beginning of the pandemic up until the 12th of March, there were 4,611 accumulated deaths in Portugal by Covid-19 of people residing in homes (deaths occurring within homes or in hospitals), of which 802 in the North, 1,263 in the Centre, 1,909 in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, 526 in the Alentejo and 111 in the Algarve.

Covid-19: 40,000 workers from 4,000 day care centres will be tested this week.

Azambuja, Lisbon, 16th March 2021 (Lusa) – About 40,000 workers from 4,000 day care centres across the country are going to be tested at Covid-19 this week, in a process whose start was announced today in Azambuja (Lisbon) by the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security.

Ana Mendes Godinho watched the testing of some of the employees of the Centro Social Paroquial da Azambuja, which reopened on Monday, within the scope of the first measures of deflation, the valences of day care, pre-school and Leisure Activities (ATL).

According to the minister, the testing of professionals who work in day care centres and as nannies aims, in addition to preventing contagion with the new coronavirus, to give “confidence and also tranquillity” in the resumption of teaching activities after almost two months of confinement due to the rapid growth of cases SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Stressing the satisfaction she saw in the children, educators and assistants in this matter, Ana Mendes Godinho said that it is necessary to thank and value “all the people who have not stopped at the service of others”, as well as the “great capacity” of the social sector and its employees, who “have always been on the ground, on the front line, working for children and the elderly”.

The minister stressed that day care testing comes in addition to the integrated monitoring and prevention program in homes, in an effort to reach the various dimensions of social responses.

Vaccines

Brussels, 16th March 2021 (Lusa) – The European Commission announced today that it has reached an agreement with BioNTech-Pfizer for the early delivery of 10 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, which will thus be available as early as the second quarter.

In a statement released in Brussels, the community executive explains that these 10 million doses are part of the batch of 100 million doses contemplated in the second contract with BioNTech-Pfizer, whose delivery was scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of 2021.

“I know how critical the second quarter is for the development of vaccination strategies in the Member States. These 10 million advance doses raise the total doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in the second quarter to 200 million. This is excellent news, as it gives the Member States room for manoeuvre and possibly compensates for gaps in deliveries ”of other vaccines, commented Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

This anticipation of the delivery of 10 million vaccines for the months of April, May and June has yet to be approved by the Member States.

The announcement of the agreement between the European Commission and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech and its North American partner Pfizer takes place one day after several Member States, including Portugal, decided to suspend the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a “precaution”, due to the formation of blood clots in some of the vaccines.

Currently, there are four vaccines against Covid-19 approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA): BioNTech-Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson group).

Johnson & Johnson signs agreement to produce vaccine in Germany

The American company Johnson & Johnson and the German IDT Biologika today closed an agreement for the production of vaccines in Germany, a protocol welcomed by the German government at a time when Europe faces delays in the delivery of these drugs.

The agreement, which will allow Johnson & Johnson to use “for three months” the facilities on the German territory of the IDT Biologika laboratory for “bottling and packaging”, will “increase the reliability of deliveries” of the vaccine in the European Union (EU), said the German Economy Minister, Peter Altmaier, in reaction to the protocol.

The American group Johnson & Johnson, through the European subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, developed a vaccine against the Covid-19 disease in a single dose, which received, last week, the ‘green light’ from the competent European authorities to begin distribution and use in the community space.

It is the fourth vaccine against Covid-19 authorized in the EU.

Suspension of AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Director-General of Health yesterday appealed for those who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine to remain calm and guaranteed that no adverse reactions like those identified in other countries have been reported in Portugal.

“If you have been vaccinated, stay calm. These reactions are extremely rare and in our country no phenomena similar to those found in other countries have been reported”, said Graça Freitas, in a joint press conference with the National Medicines Authority (Infarmed) and the vaccination plan task force.

According to the Head of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), “although the adverse reactions mentioned are extremely serious, they are also extremely rare”, and the cause and effect between this vaccine and blood clots in other countries has not been identified.

“Although the causal link between the vaccine and these reactions has not been identified, on the precautionary principle it was decided to pause vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine,” he said.

Addressing people who have already received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Portugal, Graça Freitas also called for them to remain alert to symptoms of feeling unwell for a few days.

“Above all, if this bad feeling is accompanied by bruising or skin haemorrhages, do not hesitate and consult a doctor”, stressed Graça Freitas, while ensuring that the Ministry of Health and Infarmed “maintain all confidence in vaccination against Covid-19” and called on everyone to continue vaccinating according to the planned schedule.

According to Graça Freitas, the vaccines of this pharmaceutical company that Portugal has already received are “stored in conditions and are not wasted”, waiting for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to inform if it can be administered “with the safety profile”, comparing the benefits with the risks.

Covid-19. Vaccination coordinator says delay is recoverable in “five or six days”.

Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo says that it is up to the authorities to explain the change, in just 24 hours, of the decision by DGS and Infarmed on the security of the continuity of the administration of the vaccine of AstraZeneca in Portugal.

The coordinator of the vaccination plan against Covid-19 avoids expressing a position on the temporary suspension of administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but says he is confident of resuming the vaccination process in “five or six days”.

“If the pause is not too long, we will resume the pace we were having with the AstraZeneca vaccine and we will recover this pause very quickly, which is a pause of five, six days … whatever is necessary to clarify the doubt that exists in this moment “, Vice-Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo said in an interview to the Lusa agency.

With around 400 thousand vaccines from AstraZeneca received, 230 thousand already administered and 170 thousand kept in storage, the person responsible for the vaccination plan expressed his confidence in a quick clarification of the situation, which could occur “in five, six days” and the resumption of the vaccination in that same period.

The admiral guaranteed, however, that Portugal’s decision went through a “pause” and not a suspension.

“It is not a suspension, it is a pause. There is nothing to indicate that there will be a suspension of the vaccine. There is a pause to assess the data in a precautionary manner, avoiding continuing to vaccinate until there is greater certainty about what happened and the cases that have been described as being severe cases of reaction, where it is not possible to understand whether it is a reaction or not to the reaction to the vaccination. As long as this has not been clarified, vaccination has been put on hold” he explained.

Economy

CTT’s profits fall 43% in 2020 to 16.7 million euros.

CTT’s profit fell 42.9% last year, compared to 2019, to 16.7 million euros, in a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Correios de Portugal announced.

Revenues rose 0.7% to 745.2 million euros in the period under analysis, according to information available on the website of the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM).

Income before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 10.8% to 90.5 million euros.

Tourism

Covid-19: Tourist accommodation with losses of 80% in January – INE.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) today confirmed the drop of 78.3% of guests and 78.2% of overnight stays in January, which led to a drop in income of more than 80%.

INE confirmed the data that had been advanced in the quick estimate made on March 1st, with the tourist accommodation sector registering 308,400 guests and 709,900 overnight stays in January, which corresponds to year-on-year decreases of 78.3% and 78.2%, respectively and which compare with the December records, with decreases of 71.2% and 72.6%.

In the first month of the year, the income recorded in tourist accommodation establishments, in turn, reached 33 million euros in total and 24 million euros in relation to the room, corresponding to losses of 81.2% and 80.8%, respectively (-73.9% and -74.4% in December, in the same order).

The net bed occupancy rate (9.4%), in turn, decreased by 19.7 percentage points (against the decline of 18.7 percentage points in December).

The domestic market (weight of 60.1%) contributed with 427.0 thousand overnight stays, which represented a decrease of 60.3% (-54.2% in December).

Overnight stays in foreign markets decreased by 87.0% (-83.2% in the previous month) and reached 282.9 thousand.

In January, 54% of tourist accommodation establishments were closed or there was no movement of guests (52.3% in December).

Algarve Situation Report, Wednesday 17th March 2021
Covid-19: Withdrawal of Portugal from the “British” red list “is welcome” – Turismo do Algarve.
The President of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) today considered that the removal of Portugal from the “red list” of countries whose travellers are required to be quarantined in the United Kingdom is “welcome” and reflects “the positive epidemiological situation” in Portugal.
“For the Algarve it is good news, because being the British one of the main outbound tourism markets, it allows British citizens to plan their summer holidays, namely, to start taking out their travel insurance, which was not possible with Portugal included in the list ”, João Fernandes told Lusa.
The British Ministry of Transport announced today in a statement that it will authorize direct flights from Friday and remove Portugal from the list that requires a quarantine upon arrival in the United Kingdom for Portuguese travellers.
The decision was taken “following indications that the risk of importing a worrying variant from these destinations has been reduced,” he explains in a statement, noting that “Portugal has taken measures to mitigate the risk of its links with countries where the variants have become a concern and now has genomic surveillance in place “.
For João Fernandes, the British position “gives a clear signal that the destination [Algarve] is prepared to receive tourists from that country, but it is not yet the final signal that is desired”.
“The signal we want is for British citizens to be able to travel abroad, a reality that will only become clear from May 17th, because at this moment they can only go on essential trips,” he recalled.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/covid-19-retirada-de-portugal-da-lista-vermelha-britanica-e-bem-vinda-turismo-do-algarve/37258-4

Covid-19: Algarve hoteliers cautious about removing Portugal from the British “red list”.
Algarve hoteliers have today shown themselves to be cautious about the consequences for the Algarve of the British Government’s decision to remove Portugal from the “red list” of countries whose travellers are subject to quarantine in hotels in the United Kingdom.
“It is still too early, let’s wait and see. This red list only concerns people who return to the United Kingdom, where the lack of definition only happens on the 17th of May, ”the President of the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA) told Lusa.
For Elidérico Viegas the decision will benefit above all “those who work in England and want to return to their country” and, eventually, those who have “a second residence” in the Algarve, remembering that Portugal “still does not receive flights from the United Kingdom”.
“We are speculating a lot, our forecasts for this year are essentially of internal demand, with some external demand, which will eventually exist, but let’s take it easy, because air transport is not completely assured”, he stressed.
The United Kingdom announced today that it will authorize direct flights and remove Portugal from the “red list” of countries whose travellers are subject to quarantine in hotels in the United Kingdom as of Friday.
However, air connections are not expected to resume immediately, as the Portuguese Government has extended the suspension of flights, commercial or private, with origin or destination in the United Kingdom and Brazil until March 31st.
Despite this easing of restrictions, the confinement regime due to the Covid-19 pandemic remains in England, so it remains prohibited to travel without valid justification, such as holidays, and circulation is essentially limited to nationals and residents of both countries.
For Elidérico Viegas there are still “many factors of uncertainty on the table” and despite the desire for tourism to reopen, he warned that “this will not happen from one moment to the next”.
“These things require some patience because this situation will not be resolved with the snap of a finger, nor with declarations of goodwill,” he said.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/covid-19-hoteleiros-algarvios-cautelosos-com-retirada-de-portugal-da-lista-vermelha-britanica/37257-4

Covid-19: Câmara de Loulé reopens public spaces.
The Mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo, issued this Monday an order approving the lifting of the restrictive measures in force in the public spaces of the municipality, allowing their reopening.
In a statement the Municipality mentions that the Passeio das Dunas, the pedestrian part of Avenida Infante de Sagres and Calçadão de Quarteira, the footbridge of Forte Novo in Quarteira, the footbridges of Garrão, Ancão and Ludo, the bridge of Quinta do Lago, Queda do Vigário in Alte, the Local Protected Landscapes of Fonte Benémola and Rocha da Pena are the spaces that will be able to be visited again by the citizens and by all those who visit the municipality.
Also the car parks next to the bathing areas, in the parishes of Almancil (Garrão Nascente, Vale do Lobo, Quinta do Lago, Dunas Douradas, Ancão) and Quarteira (Passeio das Dunas) can be used again.
The Louletano mayor also approved in this order the lifting of the ban on the use of benches in all public spaces in the municipality, whether in streets, playgrounds or gardens.
It should be noted that the de-confinement plan presented by the Prime Minister last week leaves the municipalities to reopen public spaces. Despite this easing of measures, the Mayor of Loulé considers it essential that citizens maintain all the rules of protection, such as wearing a mask and social distance, “because these are very attractive spaces and, as such, capable of promoting gatherings of people”, he stresses.

Portugal Situation Report, Saturday 13th March 2021

Introduction

On Thursday there were some important developments with the announcement by the Prime Minster, following the meeting of the Council of Ministers; namely the outline of the long awaited de-confinement plan, which, as expected, will be undertaken in several phases starting 15th March 2021.

Also the Council of Ministers gave details of the extension of the State of Emergency which will commence 17th March to 23:59 hrs on the 31st March.

We have translated these measures and plans into English and published these through Facebook with links to our website.

The de-confinement plan has generally well been received. Thankfully, as it appears at present (without seeing the details in the decree law) the phased de-confinement, subject to bi-weekly risk assessments is relatively simple to understand, being based on two simple risk indicators; namely Rt (rate of transmission) and the number on cases per 100,000. There has been however an increase in Rt yesterday reported at 0.80. This is likely as a result of increased movements of people erven though there has so far been no relaxation of restrictions. Although this is still below 1.0, this is something that government and experts will be monitoring closely.

With the implementation of the de-confinement plan, there will be an increase in movements by the public, resulting in an increased increasing risk of contagion. It is essential therefore, in order not to undo what has been achieved in decreasing the level of new cases, daily deaths, as well as those in hospital and ICU to levels not seen since October last year, to continue to follow the rules in place.

This means; wearing face masks, social distancing, hygiene and no social gatherings.

An unexpected development yesterday was the announcement, effective immediately, to allow the public to purchase from Pharmacies and other places that sell medicines, without a prescription, the rapid Covid-19 tests as a nasal swab, which can be undertaken in your home. These will start to be sold in Pharmacies today.

AstraZenena vaccine is in the news for the wrong reasons. It was reported yesterday that serious allergies are expected to be added to the list of possible side effects of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, after the identification of likely links to these reactions in the United Kingdom, the European Medicines Agency warned today (EMA). This update is based on a study of 41 reports of anaphylaxis seen in about five million vaccinees in the UK, said the agency, in the summary of its committee that assesses the risks of the drugs.

On Thursday, the European regulator indicated that it was investigating a problem related to the formation of blood clots following a few people who had been vaccinated, after Denmark’s health authority announced today it was suspending using the vaccine as a precaution. A move followed by eight other countries. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it was aware of blood clot concerns linked to “a specific batch” of AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, but maintained that to date, no-one has died from any coronavirus vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of the three vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus approved so far by the EMA and, as such, in use in Portugal.

Yesterday was again good news concerning the key Covid-19 figures, namely: the lowest daily death rate since 20th October 2020; 4th lowest daily new cases since 5th October; recovered nearly 10 times new cases and 40 consecutive days, the number of recovered patients exceeds that of new infections.

In hospital, it is the lowest number since 17th October. Covid-19 Patients 5,823 less compared to number in hospital on 1st February; lowest in ICU since 29th October 2020 – decreased by 69.2% since 1st February and a 10% reduction in active cases. Number of active cases lowest since 19th October, decreasing for 38 consecutive days and over 135,000 since 31st January.

Further good news came last night when Germany announced the removing of Portugal from the list of “countries with a high incidence of mutations in the coronavirus, with effect from next Sunday”, according to a note from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the social network Twitter. This follows a similar move by Switzerland a few days earlier. With the massive decreases in cases in Portugal to levels below most of Europe, let’s hope this sets the lead for other countries to take similar action.

With that please have a Safe weekend

Headlines

The President of the Republic commented yesterday that the plan of gradual de-confinement announced by the Government represents a “very reasonable and very prudent balance”, talking about convergence between the Assembly, the executive, the parties and the experts.

“It seems to me that a very reasonable and very prudent balance has been reached between what was the position of the experts, the parties and what the Government was studying and what the President of the Republic thought,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

“[The plan] allows several things to be confirmed: first, coincidence and convergence, not only institutional but also strategic, which has involved the President of the Republic, the Assembly of the Republic and the Government, which continues and will continue until end of the pandemic”, he said.

And, secondly, “the plan is until May, which is good because it is not too long and is flexible in the indicators chosen in the way they are linked with the measures, to safeguard an idea that seemed important to me, from Easter with confinement ”, added Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Classifying the plan as “positive”, the Head of State welcomed the idea of ​​it foreseeing “a confined Easter”.

For the Head of State, another important part of the plan is the “idea of ​​a progressive opening, permanently accompanied by economic and social activities and the priority given to the schools”.

“It is prudent to make this balance [because] we never know what is happening in the circulation of people and the virus and this opening in Portugal is to be done gradually and that looks at what is happening in Europe, where a significant part has a panorama more negative than positive”, argued Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, comparing the situation in the country with others, such as Italy, in which a reinforcement of restrictions was announced.

Covid-19

The daily report from DGS yesterday once again shows a continued decline in all key areas

Confirmed cases: 813,152 (+ 577 / + 0.07 %);

Number of admitted: 1,046 (-56 /-5.08 %);

Number of ICU admitted: 266 (-7 /-2.56 %);

Deaths: 16,650 (+ 15 / + 0.09 %);

Recovered: 749,770 (+ 5574 / + 0.75 %).

Active Cases: 46,732 (-5012 / -9.6%)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Despite all this good news it is important not to let our guard down at this crucial time. Those in hospital and ICU remain high. This means complying with the rules in place, – wearing face masks, social distancing, hygiene and no social gatherings.

Health

Covid-19: Serious allergies among the possible side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In a statement released today, EMA announced that it “recommended an update of the product information to include anaphylaxis and hypersensitivity (allergic reactions) as side effects”.

“This update is based on a study of 41 reports of anaphylaxis seen in about five million vaccinees in the UK,” said the agency in the summary of its committee that assesses the risks of the drugs.

12th March 2021 (Lusa) – “After a careful study of The Hague, serious allergies are expected to be added to the list of possible side effects of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, after the identification of likely links to these reactions in the United Kingdom, the European Medicines Agency warned today (EMA).

The European Medicines Agency clarified that anaphylaxis, which translates into severe allergic reactions, was already a “known side effect, although it rarely occurred with vaccines”.

Information about the vaccine from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, states that citizens who receive it should be monitored at least 15 minutes after its administration, in case of allergic reactions.

Rapid tests from Pharmacies.

Rapid antigen tests to screen for Covid-19 will go on sale in pharmacies and can be purchased without justification or a prescription from today 13th March 2021.

The procedure is similar to that of the PCR test, but less invasive – just insert the swab via the nasal or oral route – and the result is then received in the next 10 to 30 minutes.

For Public Health Doctors this measure is a good step to implement the strategy of mass testing, but they leave a warning, since the sale of rapid tests in pharmaceuticals cannot be seen as a carte blanche excuse for a life without care.

Until now, rapid antigen tests have cost about 20 euros. For now, the price at which they will be sold for use by the general population is not yet known.

Screening tests start Tuesday at public and private schools.

Nurseries, pre-school and 1st cycle schools will reopen on Monday 15th March and the following day the testing campaign in those public and private schools begins.

More than 50,000 public school workers as well as employees of private establishments begin testing for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the Minister of Education announced this Friday.

The day care centres, pre-school education and the 1st cycle reopen its doors on Monday and the following day start testing the campaign in those public and private schools.

“This new (testing) exercise begins on Tuesday with more than 50 thousand workers in the public system, plus workers from the private sector,” said Minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, during a press conference to present support measures to the sectors of Economy, Labour, Culture and Education.

According to Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, there will be a “sweep of all workers”, but “workers will not be tested at the entrance to find out whether or not they can enter the school”.

The testing campaign, he said, is more “a supplementary measure to slow the spread of the disease (Covid-19)” in a school setting.

“There was between 0.1% and 0.2% positivity in the tests” already done in the school community.

The screening tests are accompanied by the vaccination of teachers against Covid-19 and other older measures such as the use of a mask, the distance between students or the circuits of circulation within schools.

Tiago Brandão Rodrigues underlined the work done in schools to ensure that they are safe spaces, reminding of the test results to the school community that started on January 20th and involved about 65 thousand students.

Covid-19. Rt in Portugal Rises 0.8.

Updated this Friday, the value refers to an average between March 3rd and 7th and is already above the 0.78 referred to on Thursday. Contrary to what the Prime Minister said, the transmissibility indicator is not published every two days.

The indicator of transmissibility of the infection (the so-called Rt) is 0.84, according to the report published this Friday by the Dr. Ricardo Jorge Institute (INSA), referring to the period between March 3rd and 7th. The value is already above the 0.78 (between 1st and 5th March) mentioned by the Prime Minister on Thursday, when presenting the de-confinement plan. What this value means is that for now, as it is below 1, the number of cases continues to fall, but the closer it is to 1, the slower the descent.

INSA explains that since February 10th, there has been a “stabilization of Rt with a slight increase” from 0.61 to 0.84 (the value of March 7th), “which suggests a slowdown in the downward trend in incidence of SARS-CoV-2”.

Since the end of May last year, this indicator has been made public once a week by INSA. Contrary to what António Costa indicated, although INSA calculates the Rt every two days, this report is not made public: it is only shared internally with the Government and other institutions.

Education

Measurements, tests, exams and access with the same rules as last school year.

In view of the resumption of activities on a non-face-to-face basis and aiming to contribute to a framework of justice and equity, it was necessary, as in the academic year 2019/2020, to proceed with the approval of a set of exceptional and temporary measures of response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the scope of basic and secondary education, for the academic year 2020/2021, regarding the assessment and certification of learning.

In this way, the educational community is given stability, security and certainty as soon as possible in the face of the unpredictability resulting from the evolution and impact of the pandemic.

The decree-law, approved this Thursday in the Council of Ministers, establishes:

The cancellation of the calibration tests and the final tests of the 9th year cycle.

Access to higher education, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and the completion of secondary education is done in exactly the same terms as in the past academic year.

Students finish secondary school with an internal classification, that is, they do not take exams for completion and certification.

Students register and take only the entrance exams they want.

In order to continue the diagnosis of learning that may have been lost, which is essential for planning future measures, a study is carried out sample, for which the measurement instruments are expected to be used on the scheduled dates.

Economy

It was in early March 2020 that the government approved the first measures to deal with Covid-19, when it was not yet considered a pandemic by the World Health Organization. This would only happen ten days later.

According to the survey carried out by the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO), the government adopted 110 measures (or set of measures) to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. The entity that provides support to the deputies of the Budget and Finance Committee divided between the emergency phase and the stabilization phase, following the designation of the executive.

During the first period, which continued until the end of June, 50 measures were adopted. The second will run until the end of 2020, during which 60 initiatives to combat Covid-19 were approved.

In between, there were many setbacks and successes in the measures, as was the case with support for self-employed workers or managing partners who were excluded from the first immediate aid package to maintain income. And many were already recaptured at the beginning of this year with the return of the second general confinement, after that of the spring of last year, as is the case of the simplified lay-off.

According to the figures reported in the budget execution for December last year, the Covid-19 measures had an estimated cost of 4.6 billion euros, which is equivalent to about 2.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) ). In addition to this figure, this year’s costs, up until the end of January, amounted to 258 million euros, resulting in a total of 4.8 billion euros.

The largest share of this “cost” comes from the expense side of 3.4 billion euros, but there is also unpaid revenue, both tax and contributory. On this balance sheet are more than 1.4 billion euros.

In this figure, only measures with “budgetary expression in public administrations” are taken into account, that is, which aggravate the deficit. The Directorate-General for Budget does not account for “measures to support the financing of the economy that have no impact in terms of budgetary accounting.

Covid-19: Lisbon campaign hospital activity suspended as of Tuesday.

Lisbon, 12th March 2021 (Lusa) – The clinical activity of the field hospital at Estádio Universitário, in Lisbon, will be suspended as of Tuesday, the Mayor announced today, guaranteeing that the infrastructure “remains ready to reopen at any time”.

In a publication on social networks, Fernando Medina (PS) says he hopes that the equipment “is no longer needed”, but he points out that it could reopen “if so justified”.

The mayor also said that a team of operatives from the Lisbon Firefighters Regiment carried out this morning the decontamination of the space.

On March 1st, 11 patients were hospitalized with Covid-19 in the campaign hospital in Lisbon, according to António Diniz, coordinator of the space.

Taking stock of the first month of activity (between 23rd January and 23rd February), the official said, at the time, that the field hospital received 148 patients.

The structure coordinator also mentioned that eight hospital centres and hospitals in Lisbon used this equipment, at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic worsened.

Last year, during the first confinement, the infrastructure had already been prepared, but it was never used.

Algarve Situation Report, Saturday 13th March 2021.
Covid-19
The District Civil Protection Commission of Faro confirmed today that there are 427 active cases of Covid-19 in the Algarve.
According to data from the regional health delegate, 19,921 infected people were registered up until yesterday, another 30 in the last 24 hours and 19,153 recovered (cumulative).
There are 400 patients recovering at home, plus 27 inpatients, 7 in the Intensive Care Units and 5 ventilated. The same source says that since the beginning of the pandemic, 341 deaths have been registered in the region.
590 people are currently under active surveillance.
Compared to last week’s bulletin, 273 fewer active cases and 124 new cases are confirmed. Another 393 people are recovered.
There are 12 less hospitalized, 3 less patients in intensive care and 1 less ventilated (5). Under active surveillance there are 173 fewer people.

AMAL approved the economic recovery plan for the Algarve.
The 16 mayors of the region today approved, in an extraordinary meeting of the Intermunicipal Council, the Economic Recovery Plan for the Algarve and a regional strategy to combat the effects caused by Covid-19 on the economy.
A statement from AMAL states that the implementation of the plan provides, “on the one hand, to use public investment in order to enable the region to respond to the crisis and prepare it for the future, making it more cohesive, competitive, resilient and sustainable; and, on the other hand, to mobilize private investment in order to leverage the growth potential and the economic dynamism generated by the public component”.
Of the various items in the plan, the entity highlights a set of investments – 33 differentiating projects – for the region. Among them are the construction of the Hospital Central Universitário do Algarve; the development of the Commercial Port of Portimão; Faro European Capital of Culture; the ABC Loulé Project – Health Research Centre; construction of a seawater desalination infrastructure and the rehabilitation and electrification of the Algarve railway line.
The Economic Recovery Plan for the Algarve also includes several thematic packages, which aggregate the projects considered relevant for each of the municipalities in the Algarve.
The document now approved – and whose preparation work started last year, in close collaboration with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Algarve, is understood as a recommendation. “The fact that it is not watertight allows, over time, adjustments to be made according to the needs felt in the region”, reads the same statement.
In addition to this plan, the Algarve Intermunicipal Community – AMAL, says that it sent to the Government, within the scope of the public consultation of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), its contributions with a survey of the investment needs and intentions proposed by the Municipalities of the Algarve, according to the priorities set by the European Union and Portugal for the next programming period.

International exercise «NeamWave21».
The Municipal Civil Protection Service of Portimão (SMPC) participated on Wednesday, March 10th, in «NeamWave21», an international simulation and response to a tsunami exercise, whose main objective was to test the readiness of this alert system.
Through this action, the municipality of Portimão joined the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection and the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and the Atmosphere, as well as other entities throughout the national territory, to test the communication procedures to be implemented after the arrival of the tsunami warning message.
The fictitious scenario outlined focused on the occurrence of an earthquake recorded at 09h07, whose epicentre was located close to the sea of ​​Morocco, with a magnitude of 8.6 on the Richter scale and a depth of 27 kms.
As a result, the Municipal Emergency Plan for Civil Protection of Portimão was tested sectorally, as well as the system of warning to the population inherent to the occurrence, which would have hypothetically resulted 924 fatalities, 3,089 displaced and 9,506 homes destroyed, among other considerable material damages. .
In accordance with the need to relocate the affected people, using 58 buses for this purpose, itineraries were drawn up for the ZCAP – Concentration and Support Zones for the Population, one in each parish of Portimão, and even to the temporary accommodation places, located in eight hotels in the municipality.
The experience, according to the municipality, “will allow to improve the tested procedures and mechanisms, to correct and adjust them, creating capacities and automating processes, all the more so since the Porto municipality is revising its Municipal Civil Protection Emergency Plan. This learning moment will make it possible to incorporate corrective measures in the new content, which will soon be submitted to public consultation”.

Municipality of Loulé launches local trade stimulus package that plans to support more than 600 companies.
This afternoon (Friday), the Municipality of Loulé will present a package of measures to mitigate the effects of this last confinement on the local economy, at 3 pm, at the Gama Lobo Palace, with live transmission on Facebook, having prepared a campaign to stimulate trade, in the initial amount of one million euros.
The campaign, promoted by the Municipality of Loulé in conjunction with ACRAL – Association of Commerce and Services of the Algarve Region and NERA – Business Association of the Algarve Region, in collaboration with the Association of Entrepreneurs Por Quarteira and Associação Restauração e Comércio e Restoration of the City of Loulé, which will start with the period of lack of definition, “intends to stimulate the local economy quickly and effectively”, says the municipality.
With this initiative, it is expected to support, in an initial phase, more than 600 companies.
Vítor Aleixo, a Louletan mayor, considers that “this initiative will make it possible to multiply the financial return for our traders, encouraging in an innovative way consumption in local commerce. This is another considerable and important support provided by the Municipality of Loulé, which, in addition to all the work and investment carried out in this area since the beginning of the pandemic, will now invest more than 1 million euros to respond in a clear and effective way to needs of the county’s micro companies, the sectors of activity most affected.”

Portugal Situation Report Wednesday 10th March 2021

Introduction

Good morning – Yesterday was certainly highlighted with the inauguration of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa upon his second term as President of the Republic. Following a short ceremony he delivered a speech at the Assembly of the Republic highlighting those in the community who need support most during these difficult times: “the homeless, those without adequate housing, and those of his age or older who live in homes or at home in solitude or guarded by formal or informal caregivers”.

He mentioned that “We will have to rebuild people’s lives,” says Marcelo. “It is more than returning to 2019”, defends the President for whom it is necessary “good management, transparency and efficiency” in public management.

“There will only be real reconstruction if poverty decreases,” says Marcelo, assuming social cohesion as one of his missions.

It was a passionate and well received speech addressing the hardships many people face during this pandemic.

Since our last report on Saturday the general downward trend in hospitalisations, those in ICU, daily deaths has continued, although the number of new cases continues to fluctuate. There are positive signs, but although the Rt rate at 0.74 is currently the lowest in Europe, it has risen from 0.61 since mid-February.

The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, highlighted the three most important threats presented at the meeting on the epidemiological situation of Covid-19 in Portugal on Monday as i) “the increase in the risk of transmission”, ii) the situation of the variants and iii) the change in the confinement index “despite the legal context being the same” (in other words increasing movements of people).

At that meeting a plan for a five point criteria for de-confinement was proposed by experts based on different levels in municipalities, but with rates much lower that previously reflecting the reality of the current situation. This includes the resuming of face to face learning in schools. The President of the Republic, as is usual, will therefore listen to all the stakeholders involved before sending a draft decree as a framework to the Assembly of the Republic this week. The Council of Ministers will meet on Thursday to decide the measures to be contained in the extension of the State of Emergency.

One thing ministers will need to take into account, however, is the fact that there is the considerably increasing number of new cases in some of our neighbouring countries such as: France over 23,000 and Italy over 19,000 yesterday and further afield Czech Republic with 1395 cases per 100,000. The fact that the rates are increasing in most European countries means that considerable caution needs to be taken in relaxing any border restrictions.

Turning to civil protection there are two important exercises that are about to take place. The first of these is that the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC) and the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) will carry out the NEAMWAVE’21 exercise today, March 10, between 8:30 am and 2:00 pm. NEAMWAVE’21 aims to test the effectiveness and readiness of the Tsunami alert system implemented in the Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAMTWS). There are no sirens or deployments

This is a communications exercise during which the various national and international players will exchange technical-operational notifications with each other related to the eventuality of an earthquake responsible for the generation of a tsunami with an impact on the Portuguese coast.

The second is the ANEPC participation on Thursday 11th March in the ConvEx 2-b exercise under the responsibility of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The exercise takes place in the context of the implementation of the International Conventions for Mutual Assistance and Rapid Notification in the event of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency. The exercise scenario relies on a fictional accident arising from the transportation of dangerous materials and involves the discovery of a radiological source. It is thus intended to test the communication and use of the Unified System for Information Exchange in Incidents and Emergencies, as well as training / exercising the issuing of requests and possible responses to requests for assistance of the various IAEA member states.

In fact, Safe Communities participated in one of these in 2018 in Castelo Branco and we learned a great deal from this.

An important announcement for British nationals is that SEF have confirmed to the British Embassy that if you arrived in Portugal before 31st December 2020, and you are not resident or don’t intent to become resident, and you are still in Portugal due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, you do not need a visa or further authorisation to stay in Portugal longer than 90 days. SEF has told the Embassy that this is because you were exercising your right to free movement when you arrived and you are not subject to immigration control.

If you have further queries about this you should contact SEF and be prepared to provide any supporting documentation that may be required.

For those who arrived after 31st December 2020, Schengen rules apply. This means you can stay in the Schengen Area visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Any stays beyond that will be dependent on rules applied by the Portuguese authorities.

With that news please – Have a Safe Day

Headlines

“It is possible to overcome this crisis, turn this page and rebuild the country”

Prime Minister António Costa and the Ministers of State, Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, State and Foreign Affairs, Santos Silva, State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, and State and Finance, João Leão, and the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Duarte Cordeiro, represented the Government at the inauguration ceremony of the President of the Republic, which took place in the Assembly of the Republic.

In a statement to the press, the Prime Minister wished President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa “the greatest happiness in the exercise of this mandate that was renewed by the Portuguese”.

He added that, after the President’s inauguration speech “and at the end of such a hard year such as we have been facing collectively, to fight the pandemic, to resist the economic crisis and the social crisis, we all left with another spirit, comforted with the sense of hope and confidence that it is possible to overcome this crisis, to turn this page and rebuild the country”.

António Costa also said that there is “a very clear agenda, not only of institutional cooperation, but of strategic solidarity, which will surely unite the Portuguese, around the mandate of the President of the Republic”.

China launches digital health passport for international travel.

China has launched a digital health passport for its citizens, which can contribute to further opening up Chinese borders.

According to government sources, the “health certificate for international travel” is an application for smartphones that shows and verifies the vaccination history and the results of screening tests for the citizen’s Covid-19.

This passport is intended to “boost the global economic recovery and facilitate” international travel, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to AFP, this passport will only be available to people of Chinese nationality and will not, for now, be mandatory.

China’s system includes an encrypted QR Code that allows each country to obtain health information from travellers, Chinese state agency Xinhua said.

The European Commission is expected to present the proposal for a “green passport” on 17th March.

Covid-19

This Tuesday Portugal registers another 30 deaths and 847 new cases of Covid-19, according to the epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). Details are as follows

Confirmed Cases: 811.306 (+ 847 / + 0.10 %)

Number of admitted: 1.278 (-125 /-8.91 %)

Number of ICU admitted: 312 (-30 /-8.77 %)

Deaths: 16.595 (+ 30 / + 0.18 %)

Recovered: 734.218 (+ 1872 / + 0.26 %)

Active Cases: 60,493 (-1055 / -1.7%)

Despite all this good news it is important not to let our guard down at this crucial time. Those in hospital and ICU remain high. This means complying with the rules in place, – wearing face masks, social distancing, hygiene and no social gatherings.

Health

Covid-19. Pfizer vaccine effective against variant in Brazil.

The vaccine against Covid-19 developed by Pfizer and BioNTech proves to be effective in neutralizing the Brazilian variant of the virus. The conclusion is drawn from a laboratory study, the results of which were published this Monday in the “New England Journal of Medicine”.

The scientists who conducted the study say the effectiveness is almost identical to the effect the vaccine has on an earlier, less contagious version of the virus.

University of Texas researchers analysed blood samples from people who have already been immunized. This allowed us to realize that the vaccine was able to neutralize a manufactured version of SARS-CoV-2 that contained the same mutations as the highly contagious variant identified in Brazil.

Pfizer had previously announced, based on previous studies, that the vaccine was able to respond to other variants, such as that of the United Kingdom and South Africa, despite the latter reducing the protective antibodies provided by the vaccine.

This means that Pfizer is already planning to introduce a third, booster dose, in addition to updating the vaccine to combat the South African variant.

CIP wants day care centres, education up to 6th grade, hairdressers and bookstores to open on Monday.

CIP – Confederação Empresarial de Portugal defends a phased deconfinement plan, with the opening, next Monday, of day care centers, kindergartens and education up to the sixth year, hairdressers, bookstores and used bookstores.

“The economy is closed. Portugal is not working, but the Portuguese are not staying at home!”, Says the CIP, led by António Saraiva, in a document that will be presented at the Government’s meeting with the social partners.

The CIP defends “a de-confinement plan that allows the safe reopening of the various activities and the stabilization of the perspectives for citizens and businessmen”.

Covid-19 Portuguese scientific community in the race for medicines and vaccines

The Covid-19 pandemic has mobilized, over the past year, a significant part of the Portuguese scientific community in the race for vaccines and therapies, including projects aimed at new drugs, cheaper vaccines or in new forms.

At the University of Beira Interior, work is being done on the creation of a nanovacin capable of preventing and treating the disease, the work of Dalinda Eusébio, and a PhD student in Biomedicine.

It is a DNA vaccine, which does not use, like conventional vaccines, a weakened form of the virus, but genetic information that leads the body to recognize components of the virus and to formulate an immune response to it, carried by Nano systems directed to specific cells.

The final form of this vaccine may be a dry powder, which can be administered nasally, without needles and stored outside refrigerators, which may reduce the cost of its production.

In partnership with the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de São João, in Porto, researchers from the Public Health Institute of the University of Porto (ISPUP) are evaluating the efficacy and safety of Montelukast, a medicine used in asthma therapy, as a complement to the treatment of Covid-19.

If the efficacy of this medication is proven, it can “improve the prognosis of patients, the lung and respiratory injuries resulting from SARS-CoV-2 and contribute to reducing the length of hospital stay”, ensures ISPUP.

Also in Porto, researchers from the Health Research and Innovation Institute (i3S) are developing a diagnostic tool for the 45-minute detection of SARS-CoV-2 based on CRISPR-Cas13a [a nucleic acid editing technology.

The “highly sensitive” technique will be able to detect baseline levels of genetic material when coupled with an isothermal amplification system, with the centre estimating that the price per sample is around one euro.

In Faro, the University of Algarve is studying the use of saliva as a sample to detect SARS-CoV-2, a less invasive method than the swab on the nose mucosa.

According to Clévio Nóbrega, from the UAlg Biomedicine Research Center (CBMR), the objective is to try to “validate other methods” for the collection of samples, especially for “children and people with some pathologies”, since the current PCR method is “Very invasive”.

Outbreak of Covid-19 in the home of Reguengos. Order of Doctors urgently requests sight IGAS inquiry.

The Order of Doctors will urgently request the documents related to the inquiry ordered by the Ministry of Health to the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Reguengos de Monsaraz home to analyze and be able to comment.

The conclusions of the IGAS survey, ordered by the Ministry of Health (MS) following the outbreak of covid-19 in the Home of the Maria Inácia Vogado Perdigão Silva Foundation (FMIVPS), in Reguengos de Monsaraz, admit “deontological responsibility” of the doctors who refused to visit the institution following instructions from the Order of Doctors and a union.

The information was released on Monday and the documents relating to the case will be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Évora, where a criminal investigation is taking place, as well as to the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (MTSSS).

In the note released on Monday, the MS also added that “the Minister of Health asked IGAS to issue and send to the competent entity the report of facts susceptible to deontological responsibility on the part of members of the organs of the Order of Doctors and unions involved”, the competent body being the Medical Association itself.

According to the survey, the illegality issues raised by doctors at local health centres to not visit home users resulted from “instructions received either from the Medical Association or from the SIM (Independent Medical Union), which raised in these a climate of doubt and concern, starting on July 2nd, 2020 “.

“Now, contrary to the positions taken by OM and SIM, IGAS concludes that the determinations of travel by health professionals to the FMIVPS home and to sanitary accommodation did not suffer from any illegality or other legal defect”, the document reads. of the MS, in which it was added that the visits had a legal framework in an order published in April 2020.

IGAS also said that a performance contrary to the stipulated conflict with the Doctors Code of Ethics, in the general principle of cooperation and in the due cooperation for the defence of public health.

Tourism

Tourism will ask the Government for “clear measures” for the sector to suspect. “It will be another blow to miss Easter”.

The de-confinement plan that the Government is going to present to the social partners this Wednesday is awaited with maximum expectation by the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

What we are going to ask the Government for is that the measures it is going to take are clear, transparent and timely, because tourist activities, whether hotels, restaurants or travel agencies, need time to prepare, such as stocks, etc.; we need to have predictability here to organize the operation “, says Francisco Calheiros, president of the Confederation of Tourism of Portugal (CTP).

“We are waiting to see what the Government wants to do and the de-confinement plan it is preparing. It is not up to us, employers’ confederations, to comment on the options that are taken for health security, what is up to us is to alert the Government for the economic consequences, particularly in tourism, if we want to keep the offer installed in the country “, stresses the president of CTP.

Francisco Calheiros stresses that “anything that is restrictive to people’s travels penalizes tourism companies”, so everything that contemplates the plan of the lack of definition to be announced by the Government is awaited with expectation by the sector.

The head of the tourism confederation also points out that “Easter is usually the start of the tourist season, and if it turns out, as it is likely, that Easter is lost, this is yet another blow to the eventual recovery and corporate profitability “.

Teleworking

Government argues that telework regulation should move forward quickly.

Miguel Cabrita, Assistant Secretary of State for Labour and Vocational Training, stated this Tuesday the need to “move fast” with the regulation of telework in order to maximize its opportunities and minimize risks.

The minister spoke at the end of a panel of the high-level conference on the future of work, under the Portuguese presidency of the European Union, stressing the importance of finding a “balance” between teleworking opportunities and risks, defending the need “to move forward quickly for the regulation “of this model, which” is no longer new “, but which was disseminated, albeit asymmetrically among countries, by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have to face the challenge of remote work in the context of the future of work, maximize its potential but minimize its risks, and these are challenges that challenge everyone, policy makers, but also the social partners, academia and people”, said Miguel Cabrita.

Covid-19- Resume the sale of take-away drinks now, asks AHRESP.

“Unjustified”. That is how AHRESP.- Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Similars of Portugal classifies the ban on the sale of drinks in take-away, reiterating the need for the measure “to be revoked”.

The objective is to prevent the consumption of products at the door of the establishment or in its surroundings, which is already prohibited, and not the sale, which only harms the already difficult situation of our companies”, says the association at a time when it is beginning talking about the model to follow in the deflation.

“The prohibition on catering and beverage establishments to sell any type of drink in the scope of take-away is not understood, including coffee”, reiterates AHRESP to add that the current situation “is absolutely incomprehensible”.

“The sale of drinks does not represent any added risk”, he justifies.

Enforcement

The PSP investigated 63,688 people and made 49 arrests between January 15th and March 1st as part of the mandatory confinement of citizens infected with the new coronavirus or under active surveillance by decision of the health authorities.

According to data from the Criminal Investigation Department of the National Directorate of the PSP, between January 15th (date when Portugal entered a new general confinement due to the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic) and March 1st, 938 news reports were collected for the purposes of criminal proceedings.

Speaking to Lusa, sub intendent Carlos Lourenço, from the Criminal Investigation Department, said that in the Lisbon area 14 292 citizens were investigated, 17 people were arrested for non-compliance with the obligation of mandatory confinement and 733 documents were raised.

Despite the numbers, the sub intendent considered that the balance of this period is “very positive”: “These inspections allowed to control the main points of contagion. Today we have a decrease in the number of contagions and the situation is much better than in January”.

The inspection directed at the mandatory confinement of citizens diagnosed with Covid-19 or who are under active surveillance is carried out by criminal investigation agents to the civilian, on a daily basis, after the lists have been sent to them by the health authorities.

Unemployment Benefit

Ombudsman asks for solution for those who lost unemployment benefit between June and December 2020.

The Ombudsman’s Office today warned of the situation of people whose unemployment benefit ended by December 31st, 2020 and who were excluded from the measure that prolongs that support for another six months, asking for a solution.

At the origin of this alert are the more than two dozen complaints that came to the office of Maria Lúcia Amaral from people who, having seen their unemployment benefit end between June 30th and December 31st, 2020 and whose condition of resources did not allow them accessing social unemployment benefit, they fell into a situation of social deprotection since the automatic extension for another six months of the unemployment benefit provided for in the State Budget for 2021 (OE2021) includes only those who cease this benefit during the year of 2021.

In a letter sent to the Secretary of State for Social Security, Gabriel Basto, today published on the Ombudsman’s website, the Deputy Ombudsman, Joaquim Cardoso da Costa, argues that these people “should be given special attention in order to be social protection close to that foreseen for beneficiaries whose unemployment benefit ends in 2021”.

The OE2021 determines that “the periods of granting unemployment benefit that end in 2021 are, exceptionally, extended by six months”.

“In addition, when comparing the situation of beneficiaries whose unemployment benefits ended by 12/30/2020 with that of beneficiaries whose benefit will end in 2021, it is clear that the disparity in social protection conferred in both cases is clear”, says the letter.

The letter also recalls that the worker whose unemployment benefit ended between June 30th, 2020 and December 30th, 2020 and who did not access the social unemployment benefit because he did not meet the resource condition requirements, “may, at most and apparently, accessing extraordinary support for workers’ income (AERT) under the less favourable conditions established for access to it ”.

Spain extends restrictions on passengers from the UK, Brazil and South Africa

Spain extended until March 30th the restrictions in force for passengers entering the country from the United Kingdom, by air and sea, and also flights from Brazil and South Africa.

The decision announced today by the Spanish executive’s spokeswoman, María Jesús Montero, is taken to protect the health of citizens and control the spread of new variants of the Covid-19 virus.

With some exceptions, the travel in question can only be carried out when transporting exclusively Spanish citizens and residents in Spain, as well as residents of Andorra and their nationals, and passengers in international transit to a country that does not belong to the Schengen area with a stopover less than 24 hours and without leaving the transit zone of the Spanish airport.

According to the spokeswoman, the decision is part of the action determined by Madrid to protect the health and safety of the country’s citizens, contain the progression of the disease and strengthen the health and social and health systems, all following the recommendations in the field of European coordination in the fight against the pandemic.

Algarve Situation Report, Wednesday 10th March 2021
MAR Shopping Algarve raises money for homeless social reintegration projects.
During the month of March, MAR Shopping Algarve launches a donation and fundraising campaign for two homeless social reintegration projects that are being implemented in the Algarve by Associação GATO – Support Group for Drug Addicts.
Under the motto “the smallest gesture makes the biggest difference”, the campaign to collect household appliances and equipment aims to help equip the “Shared Apartments” and the “Projecto – Casa Ajuda”, integrated in the national initiative Housing First, two social responses that are being activated in Loulé and that, in total, will support a total of 15 homeless people.
Donations of equipment and materials, new or second-hand, can be made at the MAR Shopping Algarve Information Desk until March 31st. The two types of housing projects will start operating in mid-March and are already furnished, making it necessary to complement the installations with appliances such as irons, televisions, toasters, coffee machines or magic wands, as well as other elements essential to life daily life, such as towels, pillows, blankets, comforters and sheets, lamps, kitchen linen or toilet utensils, describes a note issued today by MAR Shopping.
Through the GATO Association, two temporary “shared apartments” will be implemented, with a capacity for ten people, and five individual dwellings in the “Housing First” typology, a pioneer in the Algarve and a recent innovation in responding to this social problem. These housing models aim to reintegrate and integrate homeless people into society, promoting independent living and monitoring by a technical team, which focuses on areas such as health, education, work, hygiene and domestic management.
Associação GATO is also collaborating with the Municipality of Loulé in the initiatives of “Shared Apartments” and the Projeto – Casa Ajuda “Housing First, which in total will help 15 people.

More than 30 thousand people may be receiving food support in the Algarve
The deputy of the Left Wing Parliamentary Group, João Vasconcelos, and other members of the Left Algarve Block, met with the board of Banco Alimentar do Algarve in order to understand, the difficulties that the institution faces and the impact of the crisis on families in the region.
According to the Bloc, the Food Bank reported that last year, only between April and December, due to the crisis that the pandemic brought to the region, requests for food aid increased significantly, 74%, from 16,200 people supported through 104 institutions, to 26,300 people, through 119 institutions, making the Food Bank go from 2 million to 3.3 million units of food products distributed.
In the same information, the fact that “such a big deal has never been reached” by the Food Bank in the Algarve is underlined as in the year 2020. Not even at the peak of the previous crisis where the maximum support reached 23,000 people. BE clarifies that the Food Bank, “although the number of donations has increased, and requests for support, are experiencing difficulties in responding to the requested support”.
In view of the current crisis, resulting from the pandemic, at the moment people supported at food level in the Algarve should already exceed 30,000. For the Bloco de Esquerda, the Algarve “is experiencing an authentic social catastrophe and the government is primarily responsible, as it is not giving due and necessary responses to people, families and companies, and has not yet presented any plan to combat crisis in the region, despite having been announced several months ago “, considering it to be” an unacceptable and unsustainable situation “.

Portugal Situation Report Saturday 6th March 2021

Introduction

Good morning – Firstly, a reminder that the ban on movement between municipalities is now in place from 8 pm last night until 5 am on Monday 8th March in mainland Portugal, with some exceptions provided for, within the scope of fighting the pandemic. These exceptions are the same as previously.

Regarding Covid-19, we start the day with two pieces of good news; the first being that the average transmissibility index (Rt) of SARS-CoV-2 is 0.71 in mainland Portugal, representing a downward trend in cases. The second good news is that one 1 million doses have now been administered in Portugal since the start of the program 2 months ago. The milestone was reached yesterday.

According to a report by the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) released yesterday on the epidemic curve, all regions have an Rt for five days below 1, with the exception of the two autonomous regions, which “suggests a clear decrease in the incidence of the virus in the country, taking into account that the transmissibility index reached 2.12 as the highest value during the pandemic”. More details in our separate story this morning.

Over the last two weeks we have reported four major earthquakes; one in Greece and three off the coast of New Zealand – the largest being 8.1 on the Richter scale 8.1 near Kermadec Islands Region on Thursday. Luckily these, in the case of the New Zealand ones, have not caused any damage, although extensive evacuation plans were put in place with people moving from the coastal areas along the north coast of North Island to higher ground. This was undertaken by all accounts calmly and in accordance the alerts and directions that were clearly in place.

Portugal is also a high-risk country as far as earthquakes are concerned, although thankfully those that do occur daily are seldom felt. However it is important to be aware that there is a risk as well as in some areas a risk of tsunamis. We all need therefore to know what action to take should a major earthquake occour. Each year in November, Portugal practices “A Terra Treme” the national earthquake exercise involving schools, businesses and individuals. To understand the risk and self-protection steps to take, please visit our page – a 10 minutes read which could save your life should a major earthquake occur.

Whilst on the subject of Civil Protection there was an important development on Thursday at the Council of Ministers meeting, with measures approved in the fields of integrated management of rural fires, planning of agricultural areas and forests, and the strengthening of civil protection. Most important is the defining of five strategic objectives (to strengthen governance in risk management; to improve knowledge about risks; to implement strategies for risk reduction; to improve preparedness in the event of risk; and to involve citizens in the knowledge of risks), which translate into projects and activities to be implemented by Central and Local Administration. This is a very welcomed and important approach, as the understanding of risk is essential in determining preparedness in both prevention and self-protection of rural fires.

It was announced yesterday by the President and executive director of Formula 1 Stefano Domenicali, that the Portuguese Formula 1 Grand Prix, in Portimão, will take place on May 2nd, hoping “to be able to receive spectators in Portimão safely again this year and we are working with the promoter on the details of this plan”. The decision to hold the event again in the Algarve is if course very welcomed – the issue is with or without spectators.

There is no decision yet on whether spectators will be able to attend and given the problems last year with overcrowding in various stands and in some indoor areas and clearly social distancing not being respected, we are sure that Government will take a very cautious approach in this regards. It is one thing to produce plans which incorporate DGS safety standards, but another in ensuring these plans are properly executed and enforced. Crowd management and enforcement will require a large deployment of private security and the security forces and the implications of this needs to be taken into full account.

Although the organisers and promotors are obviously pressing for the inclusion of spectators, and there are many fans who are naturally keen to attend, it would be unacceptable regardless of the importance of tourism to the economy, to allow in just 7 weeks’ time a relaxation of confinement to the extent that would undoubtedly bring thousands of people together in one location, if in doing so this results in any risk of contagion. This must not be seen as an exception to other measures that are in place at that time. In other words safety first. We wait and see developments

It is important not to let our guard down at this crucial time.

Have a Safe weekend

Covid-19

Yesterday’s DGS Covid-19 figures compared with the previous day are as follows:

Confirmed Cases: 808,405 (+ 949 / + 0.12 %)

Number of admitted: 1,583 (-125 /-7.32 %)

Number of ICU admitted: 383 (-16 /-4.01 %)

Deaths: 16,486 (+ 28 / + 0.17 %)

Recovered: 728,659 (+ 1606 / + 0.22 %)

Active Cases: 63,260 (-685 / -1.07%)

In analysing these trends it is noted that: deaths were the joint lowest since 24th October 2020; new cases were higher than previous day; recovered cases were more than new cases, for 32 consecutive days; the number of recovered patients exceeded that of new infections; there were the lowest number in hospital since 25th October, decreased by 5286 patients since 1st Feb.

The numbers in ICU were the lowest since 12th November – a decrease of 55.7% since 1st February; the number of active cases lowest since 3rd November, decreasing for 33 consecutive days and over 119,000 since 31st January (in 26 days); those under surveillance were the lowest since August 2020 and there were zero deaths in the Algarve.

Health

Percentage of total deaths attributed to the Covid-19 virus has dropped by nearly a half.

The percentage of deaths in Portugal attributed to Covid-19 has dropped, between 8th and 21st February, to about half of the percentage seen in the previous fortnight.

The number of deaths associated with Covid-19 between 25th January and 7th February had been above 40% of the total deaths, but in the following two weeks it decreased to 21.7% of the total in the week of February 15th to 21st, in which 2824 people died, 696 more than the average for the same period in the last five years, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE)

Between 8th and 14th February, 3,349 people died, 31.6% of whom with Covid-19, 175 more than the average for that week in the years 2015 to 2019.

Covid-19: Researchers use 35,000 samples to assess infectiousness of variants.

Porto, 05 Mar 2021 (Lusa) – Researchers from the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) will, through more than 35 thousand nasopharyngeal samples, evaluate co-infections with SARS-CoV-2 and see if the infectivity of the variants is changed over the past year.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, Didier Cabanes, researcher and director of the testing center for Covid-19 created at the institute of the University of Porto, explained today that the project has “two strands”: one scientific and the other technical.

Within the scope of the Horizon 2020 program, i3S received funding of 300 thousand euros from the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), based on its biobank of nasopharyngeal samples tested for SARS-CoV-2, which gathers more than 35 thousand samples, one third of which are positive for Covid-19.

Since March 2020, the biobank has been keeping samples in freezers at temperatures between 80 and 20 minus degrees Celsius and will allow evaluating co-infections in the last year with SARS-CoV-2.

“We will try to analyse whether other pathogens such as batteries or fungi may be associated with infection by the new coronavirus and if they vary seasonally”, explained the leading investigator of the Molecular Microbiology group at i3S.

In parallel, the researchers will assess whether the infectivity and aggressiveness of SARS-CoV-2 variants has changed over the past year.

Within the scope of the project, which runs until June 2023, the University of Porto institute acquired “robots” to “automate” the diagnosis of Covid-19 in the laboratory with the capacity to analyse 350 samples per day.

Covid-19 resulted in the death of 17,000 health workers in 2020, says Amnesty International.

At least 17,000 health professionals have died of Covid-19 in 2020 worldwide, said Amnesty International (AI), calling for “urgent action” to accelerate the vaccination of these “highly exposed” workers “and several times” unprotected “.

“It is a tragedy and an injustice that, every 30 minutes, a health professional dies with Covid-19. Workers around the world have put their lives at risk to try to keep people safe from Covid-19, but many have been left unprotected and paid the highest price “, denounces Steve Cockburn, AI specialist in Economic and Social Justice, cited in this analysis conducted by the non-governmental organization (NGO) and carried out in partnership with Public Services International and UNI Global Union.

The analysis work involved data released by Governments, unions, the press and civil society organizations in more than 80 countries.

The organizations admit that the numbers are likely to be higher, since not all States have gathered official information or have only done so partially.

Data from the Portuguese Directorate-General for Health (DGS), released last Monday, indicated that close to 28 thousand health professionals have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, of whom 19 died and more than 16 thousand recovered.

Covid-19: Women were most affected by the pandemic at the University of Coimbra.

Coimbra, 05 Mar 2021 (Lusa) – A study to assess the impact of the pandemic on the faculty and researchers of the University of Coimbra (UC) concludes that women were the most affected group, it was announced today.

Within the Coimbra academy, women “were the group most affected by the severity of the psychological and emotional effects associated with confinement, having reported more often feelings of anxiety, sadness, concern for the professional future and perceived lack of control over the situation” , said the UC, in a press release sent to the Lusa agency.

The study, which included a survey of 281 UC professors and researchers in September 2020, was carried out within the framework of the European project “SUPERA” (Promotion of Equality in Research and Academia), in which the Centre for Social Studies of the University participates. Coimbra University.

More than two thirds of the people surveyed reported that they started to dedicate more time to domestic work and to accompany children and young people, with women noting “a greater influence of the pandemic in the allocation of time to professional work”.

The Covid-19 pandemic pointed to the adoption of contingency measures “which had strong implications for the organization and conditions of academic work”, such as the transition to ‘online’ classes or the compatibility of teaching and scientific activity with the care of children , explained the project’s local coordinator, Mónica Lopes, mentioned in the press release.

“This study has shown that the new conditions for carrying out teaching and research work have had a different impact on women and men in academia, making visible or accentuating pre-existing inequalities in terms of working conditions, possibilities of work-family reconciliation, division of work, academic work, and scientific performance “, added the researcher.

Portuguese government hopes to reopen tourism in May.

Portugal hopes to be able to open borders and tourism in early May thanks to certificates of vaccination or tests, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, told the BBC today.

“For the time being, non-essential travel needs to be restricted, but we believe that Portugal will be able to allow unrestricted travel soon, not only for vaccinated people, but also for people who are immune or who test negative,” she said.

According to the official, “it will happen soon, in about two months. Perhaps in May, early May” she added, guaranteeing that she plans to “have everything ready to allow the British to visit the country”.

Rita Marques told the British public station that the Government is “working to reopen Tourism as quickly as possible in a safe way” and showed confidence in the so-called “green pass” to be issued by the countries of the European Union.

On the 17th, the European Commission is going to present a legislative proposal to create a digital free pass that will make it possible to resume travel at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, proving the vaccination or the recovery of citizens.

The pass may include not only a certificate of vaccination against Covid-19, but also test results or immunity information for people who have recovered from the disease.

The United Kingdom remained the main tourist emitter market in 2020, representing 16.3% of overnight stays from non-residents, despite the 78.5% decrease compared to the previous year, said the Portuguese National Statistics Institute.

Currently, travel between Portugal and the United Kingdom is prohibited and there are no direct flights, although nationals or residents of both countries are allowed to travel with a valid justification and evidence that they have tested the coronavirus with a negative result.

The British government has already said it does not intend to change the rules before 17th May, after evaluating a study with recommendations for safely restoring international travel.

Schools – Protective equipment

The Ministry of Education announced yesterday that it has made about seven million euros available for schools to buy masks and other materials and personal protective equipment against Covid-19.

Specifically with regard to masks, the Ministry of Education explains in a statement that, although mandatory use for 1st cycle students is not foreseen, the amount of the budget was defined in order to allow schools to buy enough masks to these students.

“Bearing in mind the signposts of parents and guardians for their students to use this equipment, it was understood for reasons of prudence that it would be considered for its acquisition for 1st cycle students, with the respective guardians being responsible for decision on its use ”, he says.

According to a note from the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE), which has already been sent to schools, the materials to which these seven million euros are destined are detailed: three masks for each student, teacher and employee, gloves and aprons for operational assistants, and disinfectant.

“The provision of free masks and other personal protective equipment to students and professionals, as well as disinfection and cleaning products, is part of the set of measures to prevent and mitigate the risk of transmission of Covid-19, which have allowed increase the security of the school space ”, underlines the authority.

Ministry of Health creates new National Trauma Commission.

The creation of a green route for trauma in the provision of pre- and intra-hospital health care is one of the new competences of the renewed National Trauma Commission, according to an order today published in Diário da República.

The order of the Deputy Secretary of State and Health, António Lacerda Sales, renews the constituted National Trauma Commission, which is now made up of representatives of the various bodies of the Ministry of Health with attributions in the field of health and the management of “especially relevant” means. for coordination regarding trauma”.

In addition to ensuring the implementation of the green route of trauma, this commission will propose the model of operation and articulation of the agents participating in the network, identify and encourage the dissemination and implementation of good practice standards and assess the needs in terms of equipment and infrastructure in the emergency services integrated into the hospital urgency and emergency network.

The order also establishes that the commission proposes the creation of the National Trauma Registry in the Urgent Patients Guidance Centres (CODU) and pre-hospital medical emergency means and in the urgency and emergency hospital network, and consequent epidemiological surveillance of trauma in Portugal. , in conjunction with INEM, Shared Services of the Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA).

The National Trauma Commission, which by March 31st is expected to present an activity plan for the year 2021, is also responsible for promoting the appointment of local trauma coordinators, from each institution in the hospital network with emergency medical and surgical services (multipurpose) to evaluate the management and reserve mechanisms of relevant blood products in this context and identify the pertinence of constituting a specific component within the scope of the Strategic Medicines Reserve.

Other news

Government approves investment of 30 Million Euros in measures to enhance forest landscape.

The Council of Ministers today approved a set of measures under the policy of enhancing the forest landscape that involve an investment of around 30 million euros, announced today the Minister of the Environment.

At the end of the Council of Ministers (CM) dedicated to forests, which today took place in Monsanto, Lisbon, João Matos Fernandes highlighted that the largest share, of more than 20 million euros, will be destined to investments in public forests and in forest perimeters.

The minister also highlighted the investment of five million euros in the extension of intervention projects for the restoration of ecosystems started in 2016 in the Peneda-Gerês Natural Park.

According to the communiqué of the CM, the Government today approved a resolution for the projects of restoration and enhancement of natural habitats, with structural prevention against fires, in five parks, namely the Natural Parks of the North Coast, Alvão, Serra da Estrela, Sintra-Cascais and the Guadiana Valley.

“The funds dedicated to these projects go from 21 to 26 million euros, with a total of 19 protected areas now covered”, he said.

These projects will “focus on the active conservation of protected areas, associating the investment directed to the restoration and enhancement of natural habitats with the structural prevention against fires, also guaranteeing the provision of the means and equipment necessary for this purpose”, added the statement.

The remainder will be distributed between the launch of four more landscape plans and the extension of co-management measures for parks and protected areas.

Algarve Situation Report, Saturday March 6th 2021.
Sports
Formula 1 returns to Portugal in May
On Friday, the organization confirmed the plan to stage the Portuguese Formula 1 Grand Prix, in Portimão, on May 2nd.
The vacancy that was open in the official calendar of the Formula 1 World Championship is filled. From April 30th to May 2nd, the “fireballs” of the main track racing event will accelerate at the Portimão race track, in the Algarve.
The information was released on the social networks of the organization of the Formula 1 race and confirmed in a statement sent to the newsrooms, this Thursday morning.
“We are very excited to announce that Formula 1 will be racing again in Portimão, after the huge success of the race last year. We want to thank the promoter and the Portuguese Government for their hard work and dedication to the return of the race to Portugal, “said president and executive director of Formula 1 Stefano Domenicali, in a statement.
“We hope to be able to receive spectators in Portimão safely again this year and we are working with the promoter on the details of this plan,” added Domenicali.
The Formula 1 returned to Portugal in October 2020, the Algarve International Circuit, after 24 years of absence from the World Cup, following the reorganization of the schedule due to the pandemic Covid-19. “We were pleased to receive 27,000 fans during the Grand Prix weekend last season who were able to enjoy the great moments of action on the track,” adds the statement.
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (AIA) expects a decision “on the presence of spectators in the coming weeks”, it is also read in the same statement.

In February Algarve hotels recorded a drop of 93.7%.
According to data from the Association of Hotels and Tourist Enterprises of the Algarve – AHETA, in relation to 2020, the month of February 2021 presented an average global occupancy rate of 2.9%, 93.7% below the value registered in the previous year.
According to the same source, the markets that contributed most to the decline were British (-98.0%) followed by German (-97.2%) and Dutch (-94.9%).
Despite having presented the lowest year-on-year decline, the national market declined -71.6%
Sales volume also decreased by -94.5% compared to the same month of the previous year.
The association also registers that, in accumulated values ​​of the last twelve months, the bed occupancy registered an average decrease of -60.5% and the volume of sales a decrease of -66.2%.

Covid-19: Algarve opens 25 beds for intensive rehabilitation of SNS patients.
The Algarve has since today (Friday) had 25 beds for the intensive rehabilitation of patients who were affected by their functions following the Covid-19 pandemic, the chairman of the board of directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA) told Lusa.
The beds, installed at the Center for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (CMFR) do Sul, in São Brás de Alportel, integrated in CHUA, will be able to receive patients with Covid-19 who were subjected to intubation and who were referred by the National Health Service for hospitalization. Health (SNS).
Speaking to Lusa, Ana Castro, said that the measure is “unique at national level” and that its objective is to allow patients who have been affected by the disease as a result of the disease to be able to “return to their normal life” as soon as possible, through a rehabilitation that brings together different therapies.
“We, at CMFR, already had a multidisciplinary team that did an intensive rehabilitation of patients who needed it and we thought that it would be a need to rehabilitate Covid patients who were in Intensive Care Units [UCI] and lost capacities”, he said.
Patients referred to the center in São Brás de Alportel will undergo a multidisciplinary program of “six hours a day” that will help them recover “both motor skills and some skills in terms of breathing, speech, swallowing, because of having been incubated”, he exemplified.
The chairman of the CHUA board of directors – which includes the hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos and the CMFR – stressed that “this program is different from the others” and “unique at national level”, revealing that “a patient is already in hospital ” and another that went to the outpatient phase.

Southern Rehabilitation Medicine Centre resumes operation.
The Southern Rehabilitation Medicine Centre (CMR SUL), in São Brás de Alportel resumes its full operation with the total reopening of the number of beds in hospital.
An achievement defended by Vítor Guerreiro, President of the City Council, since 2014 with successive governments, achieved on Wednesday, March 3, with the beginning of a new rehabilitation program for post-Covid-19 patients.
This is an innovative service in the area of ​​rehabilitation, under the coordination of the CMR Sul team, which aims to provide an adequate response to complex clinical conditions of Covid-19 patients, subject to invasive mechanical ventilation and who need specific rehabilitation programs, more intensive, and with a multidisciplinary approach.
This new investment in the health of the Portuguese, allowed the reopening of another 25 beds and the hiring of specialized personnel, returning the full functioning to the Southern Medical and Physical Rehabilitation Center.

Portugal Situation report Wednesday 3rd March 2021

Introduction

Good morning, yesterday was one year since the first two cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Portugal. Inevitably there was much reflection on the events over the last year with the President of the Republic leading, by thanking the population by the way they organized and committed themselves in responding to this pandemic, with a particular word of appreciation for the work and commitment of health professionals, thanking all concerned.

He stated that “it was desirable that, more than learning from what went well, we all have the ability to learn lessons from what went less well. Improving the ability to plan and anticipate scenarios and responses, reacting more quickly and being more adapting to circumstances, are examples of areas that should be the focus of current and future attention from all of us”

This is not, of course, confined to Portugal. After any major crisis, and this is arguably the largest for many years, it is necessary to reflect on what went well and what did not – in other words, lessons learned as well as best practices. By doing this improvements can be made in facing major challenges for the future – and there will be more.

In our report this morning we also include the work of two major hospitals in Portugal in dealing with Covid-19, the Hospital Curry Cabral (part of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central Group, (CHULC)) and Hospital Santa Maria. From these two reports it can be seen the considerable pressure these hospitals and all the doctors, nurses and all staff would have been under over the last year. We thank you all for your tremendous work operating in the most dangerous of conditions.

The national average Covid-19 infection rates per 100,000 people have improved considerably, which is clearly reflected at the local level. At extremely high-risk level there are now only 3 municipalities, according to the DGS report published on Monday, compared with 234 municipalities on 1st February 2021. This is a remarkable achievement.

When analysing yesterday’s DGS daily figures, this showed: the second lowest number of daily deaths since 29th October; in terms of new cases – 3rd lowest since 6th October; that the number of recovered patients exceeds that of new infections consecutively for 30 days; the lowest number in hospital since 31st October; lowest numbers in ICU since 18th November; number of active cases lowest since 30th December, decreasing for 29th consecutive day and over 115,000 (67.3%) since 31st January (in 26 days) and those under surveillance the lowest since mid-October.

With the improving situation, it would be easy to let our guard down, but to do so now would increase the risk of contagion and jeopardize the sacrifice that people have made during the latest period on confinement and again put pressure on hospitals and the health service, which cannot happen.

The Prime Minister stated yesterday: “It is the way we behave out there that will help us stop this pandemic. Here [in hospitals] they treat patients and save lives, but it is out there that the pandemic is stopped, each one of us, with our behaviour, with the use of a mask, with hand hygiene, with physical distance and with the deprivation of social contact”, he said.

A reminder that the deadline for land cleaning for those living in rural areas still remains 15th March. The GNR began on 22nd February the Monitoring and Awareness phase by visiting those living in high-risk areas to raise fuel management awareness in order to ensure the safety of the population. This phase, will take place until March 31. The full details of land cleaning can be found on our website. Remember if your land includes holm oak trees then special permission is required before pruning or cutting down such trees. Failure to make the application will incur a large fine.

When undertaking the burning of debris, whereas in the past it was necessary to call the local Bombeiros to register the burn, this has now changed. The procedure now is to make an on-line application either through the ICNF website or by calling the central number. To make an on-line application visit the ICNF website here. Here you can also find the ICNF manual which Safe Communities Portugal has translated into English.

If you are considering burning debris or land to dispose of pasture, we stress the need to ensure that you are physically able to do this whilst at the same time ensuring adequate safety measures to avoid the burn becoming out of control. Last year over half of rural fires were caused this way. More details are in this week’s Algarve Resident in a SCP feature available tomorrow 4th March.

So with that advice, Stay Safe.

Headline

Prime Minister calls for civic sense for confinement to be maintained strictly.

Prime Minister António Costa appealed to all Portuguese people to maintain the strictness of the confinement rules and reiterated that the pandemic can only be stopped by containing any risky behaviour.

During the visit to Curry Cabral Hospital, which marked the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, António Costa reiterated the need to maintain confinement to ensure control of the pandemic, and that the risk of unemployment and the closure of companies is increasing. But we cannot repeat what happened in the first wave, nor what happened in the second wave, nor what happened in this tragic month of January”.

“We cannot forget what happened because the idea that tragedies are not repeated is a false idea. Tragedies are repeated when the mistakes that resulted in these tragedies are repeated. It is good to keep your memory well because it is the best way to support excellent health professionals”, he added.

António Costa praised the “excellence of all health professionals” for the work they have done during the last twelve months and reiterated that the best way to support those inside hospitals “to do their best to save the life of those lives at risk” is a huge discipline in containment.

“It is the way we behave out there that will help us stop this pandemic. Here [in hospitals] they treat patients and save lives, but it is out there that the pandemic is stopped, each one of us, with our behaviour, with the use of a mask, with hand hygiene, with physical distance and with the deprivation of social contact”, he said.

Covid-19

This Tuesday Portugal recorded 38 more deaths and 691 new cases of Covid-19, according to the daily report of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). The keys figures in the report were as follows:

Confirmed Cases: 805.647 (+ 691 / + 0.09 %)

Number of admitted: 1.997 (-170 /-7.84 %)

Number of ICU admitted: 446 (-23 /-4.90 %)

Deaths: 16.389 (+ 38 / + 0.23 %)

Recovered: 723.465 (+ 3230 / + 0.45 %)

Active cases: 68,370 (-898 / -1.19%)

Health

Covid-19: Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Central received the first of 3,316 treated patients a year ago.

Lisbon, 03 March 2021 (Lusa) – Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central (CHULC) received the first patient with Covid-19 a year ago and has since treated 3,316 patients, 313 of whom are children and young people, according to data released today to the agency Lusa.

On March 3rd, 2020, Hospital Curry Cabral, one of six hospitals that are part of CHULC, received the first patient diagnosed with Covid-19, one day after the first two cases were diagnosed in Porto, one at the Hospital of Santo António and the other at Hospital São João.

The first was a 38-year-old man who entered the Curry Cabral at 8:20 am and had to wait 10 hours until he knew the result of the analysis confirmed as positive by the National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge (INSA), a source told Lusa from the hospital centre.

He left the hospital 10 days later, but still tested positive for Covid-19, having stayed at home in isolation until the test was negative, which happened in April.

Of the 3,316 patients who were followed up at the hospital until the 28th of February, 656 were admitted to intensive care units, including three children who received this care at the paediatric hospital D. Estefânia.

During this period 629 people died, including a child, victims of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, 222 of whom were in intensive care units (ICU).

The maximum number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 was recorded on February 7th, totalling 346, and the maximum number of open beds was reached the following day.

The data states that the maximum number of infirmary beds for adults was 274 and that of ICU level 3 beds were 60, and in paediatrics, there were 17 and two beds, respectively.

Covid-19 – One year: Hospital Santa Maria treated around 2,500 infected patients.

Lisbon, 02 Mar 2021 (Lusa) – About 2,500 patients with Covid-19 were treated this past year at Hospital Santa Maria, 450 of which in intensive care, where the survival rate is 78%, according to data from the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa North released today.

Of the 450 patients who needed to be admitted to intensive care, around fifty needed ECMO, an extracorporeal circulation device that allows them to temporarily replace the function of the heart and lungs.

According to the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte (CHULN), they were “the highest numbers in the Lisbon region and the highest in the whole country”.

In recent weeks, the hospital centre has had eight intensive care units exclusively dedicated to Covid patients, of which five are new, totalling 69 beds, the Hospital Centre says in a note sent to the Lusa agency, on the day that marks a year the appearance of the first two cases of Covid-19 in Portugal.

“This plan is now beginning to be reconverted in a phased manner to non-Covid activity, which has already resumed the priority surgeries and resumes the outpatient surgery this week”, he stresses.

In the balance sheet of a year of pandemic, the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte says that the emergency department dedicated to respiratory diseases attended about 31 thousand patients in the last year, more than half (55%) coming from outside the reference area of ​​CHULN .

“The urgency of the Hospital de Santa Maria did not end a single day and responded to suspected Covid patients from the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon and the West region, but also to users from Leiria, Santarém, Alentejo or the Algarve”, he stresses.

Nearly a third (29%) of the consultations resulted from referrals from the National Institute for Medical Emergency (INEM).

“The rate of positivity in CHULN Covid urgency was 13%, while 75% of patients tested negative for Sars-Cov-2. Eleven percent of the patients did not need to be tested and only 1% of the cases were inconclusive”, reveals the hospital centre, which includes the Santa Maria and Pulido Valente hospitals.

In total, the CHULN Clinical Pathology laboratory carried out more than 155 thousand tests for screening

Teachers and non-teaching staff to be included as a priority for vaccinations.

The Minister of Health admitted today that teachers and non-teaching staff can be included as priorities for vaccination against Covid-19, considering that schools are an “essential service”.

“When we talk about essential services – and schools are in some way in our social approach an essential service – it may make sense that adults who work in these places have a differentiated vaccination,” said Marta Temido in an interview with Jornal da Noite da SIC.

On the day that marks a year of the first cases of infection with the new coronavirus diagnosed in the country, the official considered that the inclusion of teachers and non-teachers, including those who are not at risk groups, in the first phase of vaccination that is being carried out, taking place is a “hypothesis that is being analysed, not only in Portugal, but also in other countries”.

“When we look around us and see what the processes of deflation are, we see the very intense presence of two realities: vaccination and testing”, stressed Marta Temido, adding that the experts’ opinion “is quite comprehensive in relation to those that will be the various options that can be taken”.

“This is, in fact, one of the difficulties that we have even had in communication: the fact that there is a variety of opinions on the same subject, which makes the decision process very difficult”, admitted the minister.

Schools

Marta Temido: there are no “conditions” to talk about returning to school.

Minister of Health stressed yesterday, that although there has been a decrease in cases of infection and deaths by Covid-19 in the last few days in Portugal, the situation is not yet ideal and refers more clarifications on the reopening of schools on 11th March.

Asked about returning to face-to-face education, in an interview with Antena 1, Marta Temido replied: “We are not in a position to talk about this topic yet. We have chosen to keep this information conditional on a set of circumstances, a set of hearings and specifically a calendar that has already been announced by the Prime Minister and which states that on 11th March we will report on a set of rules that, if determined assumptions remain, then they will apply.””

The Minister of Health points out that, although there has been a decrease in cases of infection and deaths by Covid-19 in the last few days in Portugal, the situation is not yet ideal. “When, in August, we had a maximum of 29 patients admitted to intensive care on a given day, yesterday we had 469. When, in August, we had 270 patients admitted to the infirmary, yesterday [Monday] we had 2167 . When, in August, we had a positive rate [from tests to Covid-19] of just over 1%, we are now still above 4%. Therefore, there are many things that, although today – because we are already used to it – seem to us to be calm, they are far from being”, he said.

According to Marta Temido, with regard to the reopening of schools and restrictions planned for Easter, the Government intends to adopt the best possible balance, despite criticism. The minister also highlights the pressure on hospitals and the contact surveillance system.

European Union Health Ministers underline need to speed up vaccinations.

The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, stated that the implementation of the National Vaccination Plans was one of the three main themes addressed during the informal meeting of the Ministers of Health of the European Union, which also counted on the presence of the European Centre for the Prevention and Control of Diseases and the European Medicines Agency.

At the press conference after the meeting, at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon, the Minister stressed that the Member States “identified the need to accelerate, together, the alignment between the response of science and the response of industry in the sense of the contracts concluded by the Commission can be fulfilled, guaranteeing the implementation of the National Vaccination Plans as soon as possible”.

Marta Temido reiterated the objectives proposed by the European Union to vaccinate 80% of people over 80 by the end of March, as well as health professionals and professionals supporting health professionals, in addition to reaching 70% of the entire population of the European Union by the end of the summer.

During the meeting, two other key themes were also addressed, said the Minister. “Circulating variants and the various strategies essential for early detection, genetic sequencing and containment, and testing strategies, underlining the importance of uniform and coordinated guidance at Member State level”.

The Minister of Health also referred that the Ministers of Health discussed the possibility of implementing “vaccination certificates and other documents useful for the mutual recognition of the health status of each citizen of the European Union”.

Covid-19: Vaccination of about 15,000 firefighters completed.

The vaccination process for the 15,000 firefighters began on February 11th and was completed last week, a source from MAI told Lusa.

Firefighters were considered a priority in this first phase of the vaccination process, taking into account the essential role of the State they perform and due to the operational dimension of the pre-hospital transport they perform.

According to MAI, the order of vaccination of these firefighters was defined by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority “based on operational criteria and covered the universe of volunteers, sappers and municipalities”.

In this first phase, which lasted two weeks, about 50% of the total number of firefighters was vaccinated against the Covid-19.

Covid-19: Disposal of 78 doses of vaccines at the Hospital das Caldas da Rainha under investigation.

The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste confirmed today the opening of an investigation to investigate the circumstances in which 78 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 were rendered useless, allegedly due to a failure of the cold system in the Hospital of Caldas da Rainha.

Questioned by the Lusa agency, the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (CHO) confirmed “the destruction of 13 vials of vaccine against Covid-19”, equivalent to 78 doses, intended for vaccination of professionals.

According to the CHO board of directors, the vaccines were discarded after on the 19th it was detected, at the Hospital das Caldas da Rainha, in the district of Leiria, “an abnormal temperature record inside the cold equipment used for the condition, due to an apparent failure of the refrigerator”.

In an email sent to the newsrooms, the board of directors states that it has already been decided to open an “investigation process to ascertain what happened”, waiting for the conclusion of the same to provide more concrete information about the vaccine’s destruction.

The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste integrates the hospitals of Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche, having an area of ​​influence constituted by the populations of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã and part of the municipalities Alcobaça and Mafra. These counties are divided between the districts of Lisbon and Leiria.

Enforcement

Lisbon, 01 March 2021 (Lusa) – Three citizens with false documents were detected on Sunday at Lisbon airport by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), this criminal and border police body announced today.

In a statement, SEF said that two of these citizens were detected during the flight departure to the Republic of Ireland, in possession of other documents.

The third, however, was detained at the health control on arrival of a flight from Vienna, Austria, having identified himself with counterfeit documentation.

At the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, in Porto, SEF also held a citizen from Paris, France, on Sunday, for having presented a falsified proof of test of Covid-19.

The citizen then carried out the Covid-19 test at his own expense, inside the airport, says the SEF.

EU travel certificate does not provide for data exchange nor is it limited to vaccines.

European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, guaranteed today that the digital certificate for Covid-19 that will allow travel within the European Union does not provide for any data sharing between Member States.

“We want to avoid fundamental rights problems and violation of data protection and also discrimination between citizens”, Reynders said today in a press conference, adding that “it will be a very simple verification of data and that it will be coordinated through a legislative instrument.”

“It will be a certificate, not a passport that will give an account of the situation of each person in relation to the disease: if he was ill, if he was vaccinated or if he had a PCR test”, he underlined.

The European Commission is preparing “a legislative instrument on the data that will appear on a digital numeric certificate” that allows the vaccinated persons who have developed antibodies or who have a negative PCR test to circulate in the European Union (EU).

“We will continue to work on a way to organize free movement,” said the commissioner, guaranteeing that “there will be no discrimination in these certificates”.

“We want a legislative instrument that allows the same data to be collected on the same certificates issued through the EU. Then we will see what are the possible uses for the certificates”, he clarified.

The commissioner also said he was waiting for a response from the six Member States that banned non-essential travel, stressing that they should limit themselves to following the recommendations of the EU Council itself.

“We wrote [on 23 February] to six Member States and gave ten days for a detailed response and contacts continue with the countries,” said Reynders, stressing that the countries concerned have nothing more than to correctly implement the recommendations adopted by the Council of the United Nations. EU, a body that brings together the 27.

Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden are the countries targeted.

These recommendations, he stressed, are aimed at allowing travel restrictions, through the presentation of tests or the imposition of quarantine, but avoiding prohibitions.