Azores Situation Report Saturday 15th May 2021
From our colleague in the Azores
Road Safety Leaflet
A road safety awareness campaign called “Welcome to the Azores” has been produced by the Azores Road Prevention Association (PRA) and its distribution is scheduled for June this year, in all the islands of the Azores, with a special focus on rental car companies, at airports, in delegations and tourist offices, said the regional secretary for Public Works and Communications, Ana Carvalho.
The ‘flyer’, which is simple to read, but full of essential information, to help prevent accidents in the region and helping to make the Azores a good choice in terms of road safety.
The regional secretary was speaking at the presentation of this document, which took place this Friday, in Ponta Delgada, and where the president of the Azorean Road Prevention Association was also present.
The campaign offers a bilingual brochure, explaining to tourists the rules and habits of the Azorean roads, to prevent accidents that arose with the increase in the circulation of rented vehicles.
Walter Adrahi, president of PRA, said that “in 2019, with the very intense increase in the number of tourists and with the huge increase in the number of rental cars, it was necessary to take some measures”.
“With the increase in tourism flows in the region, there was an increase in conflict situations due to the violation of certain rules, which can compromise road safety”, said the official.
After a significant increase in claims and the number of deaths in 2019, in 2020, a year marked by the covid-19 pandemic, accidents on the Azorean roads decreased.
The data show that, between 2010 and 2020, the peak number of deaths on the roads of the Azores was in 2019, with 28 deaths. Before that, there were almost always less than 20 deaths, except in 2011, the year in which 22 people died.
Last year, with the decrease in traffic, there were 2,875 accidents in the region, compared to 3,490 in the previous year.
12 people died in road accidents in 2020 in the Azores.
Rabo de Peixe
The village of Rabo de Peixe, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande, will be the only location in the Azores subject to high-risk Covid-19 containment measures, announced the regional secretary for Health and Sports.
“We have Nordeste and Ribeira Grande with medium risk measures, Vila Franca and Lagoa with low-risk measures, Ponta Delgada, Povoação and all other municipalities in the Azores with very low risk measures”, said Clélio Meneses, in a press conference, in Angra do Heroísmo.
Due to the number of new cases of infection registered in the last seven days, which determine the level of risk of transmission according to the evaluation model applied in the Azores, the island of São Miguel would have two high-risk counties, Nordeste (284 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants) and Ribeira Grande (308 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants).
However, the regional health secretary said that it was “necessary to act in a detailed manner in time and place”.
“With the exception of the case announced today, perfectly identified, all other cases in the Nordeste were verified five or more days ago, which means that the situation is in evidence of control, therefore, high risk measures are not justified.
As for the municipality of Ribeira Grande, according to Clélio Meneses, “it is perfectly and intensely demonstrated that the focus of contamination is once again concentrated in the village of Rabo de Peixe, for which specific localized and more stringent measures are required”.
The risk level assessment in the Azores is based on a German model, of traffic lights, and is calculated according to the number of new cases of covid-19 per 100 thousand inhabitants in a period of seven days.
There are five levels of risk: very low (less than 25 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants), low (between 25 and 49 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants), medium (between 50 to 74 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants), medium high (between 75 and 99 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants) and high (more than 100 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants).
Vaccines
“Next week, everyone aged 60 or over will be [vaccinated],” said the regional secretary for Health and Sports, Clélio Meneses, at a press conference in Angra do Heroísmo.
According to the official, until the end of this week, all Azoreans over 63 years of age (excluding those who refused the vaccine) should be vaccinated, with a weekly evolution “in a stratified way”.
“up to the age 63 this week, up to the age of 60 next week and, the following week, we hope to reach the age of 55”, he stressed, adding that people with certain pathologies and from certain sectors of activity also continue to be vaccinated.
In the Azores, 91,979 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have already been administered to 60,703 people, of which 31,276 with two doses.
“This process is already at a very fast pace. Just yesterday, in São Miguel, 1,273 people were vaccinated. It is a very significant number. We have passed 1,000 jabs per day already on a regular basis”, said Clélio Meneses.
The minister said that the Azores are entering a “decisive moment to fight the pandemic”, with an increase in vaccination, but he called for the population to join.
“The rate of refusal depends on the island. We have information that in the age group that is being vaccinated in the village of Rabo de Peixe there was a significant refusal rate. These are worrying refusal rates, as it is a means of protection that is not used to be able to fight the pandemic”, he said.
Asked about the fact that the archipelago of Madeira, which has a population similar to that of the Azores, has already administered 112,364 doses of vaccines against covid-19, the official said that the process in the Azores “has a different complexity”.
“Some islands have reduced the speed of vaccination, in the sense of balancing so that all of them have the vaccines appropriate to what are the needs and vulnerabilities that are a fundamental criterion for vaccination,” he added.
Covid-19
The Regional Health Authority has said that in the last three days the number of new positive cases of Covid-19 resulting from 6,803 tests is 71. These tests were carried out in reference laboratories in the Region, in private laboratories with conventions, in the Regional Health Service, through rapid tests (mass screening), in the laboratory of Terceira University and by means of tests carried out in the scope of occupational medicine.
São Miguel registered most of the cases with 67and Terceira had 4.
There have been some recoveries, 53 in total, 48 of them on the island of São Miguel, 4 on Flores and 1 on Santa Maria.
As of today, seven patients remain in hospital, all in the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital in Ponta Delgada, with one in intensive care. There are currently 963 people under active surveillance.
The Region has currently 226 positive active cases: 216 on the island of São Miguel, five on the island of Flores, four on the island of Terceira and one on the island of Santa Maria.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 5,156 positive cases of covid-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores and 4,773 people recovered from the disease. There were 31 deaths, 79 people who left the archipelago and 47 cases with a history of previous cure. There are two active transmission chains in the archipelago, one on the island of Flores and one on the island of Terceira. 201 chains have already been extinguished.
Since 31st December 2020 and 13th May, 91,979 doses of covid-19 vaccine were administered in the Azores, corresponding to 60,703 people aged 15 years or over who received the first dose and 31,276 people who received both doses, as part of the Regional Vaccination Plan.
The Regional Health Authority has said that in the last four days the number of new positive cases of Covid-19 resulting from 5,623 tests is 86. These tests were carried out in reference laboratories in the Region, in private laboratories with conventions, in the Regional Health Service, through rapid tests (mass screening), in the laboratory of Terceira University and by means of tests carried out in the scope of occupational medicine.
“An external person has already been identified, with international experience in terms of health logistics, who will be responsible for the logistics process in vaccination”, he said.
São Miguel registered most of the cases with 50. Santa Maria had 1 Terceira 1 and Flores had 1.
According to the vaccination portal against Covid-19 in the Azores, 79,589 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have already been administered to 56,419 people (22.9% of the population, according to the 2011 census), of which 23,170 with two doses (9.4%).
The North and the Centre have a Coronavirus transmission rate of 1, while Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and the Alentejo are at 0.96, the Algarve at 0.89 and the Azores at 0.87.