Portugal Situation Report Wednesday 4th August 2021
Good morning – Although it is early days, it appears that we may have now reached a turning point in the Covid-19 pandemic here in Portugal. All the key indicators such as RT and a reduction in incidence rates show that we are now at last on a downward track.
Of course we have been in similar situations before, only to find that cases have increased again, necessitating the reintroduction of more restrictive measures.
However, we are now at a point where the measures are less restrictive than we have seen for well over a year, and we have one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe. The Portuguese government in my view have done an incredible job in responding to crisis few of us have previously experienced.
I can say this with some experience and confidence, having been at the forefront in Hong Kong in 2002/3 dealing with the SARS crisis. We learned a great deal from that crisis which is why Safe Communities Portugal became the first organisation in Portugal to start monitoring its progress, two months before it reach our shores.
If all goes well we will be back to normality once 85% of the population is vaccinated with estimates being that will be sometime in October. Before then, once 70% vaccinations are achieve, estimate, September we will then move to the next phase. Currently 57% of the population have been fully vaccinated and almost 70% at least one dose.
As proposed by several experts, measures were approved at the last Council of Ministers applicable to the levels of 70% and 85% of complete vaccination of the population, based on indicators related to the assessment of the risk of transmission of the infection, the level of incidence, clinical severity and the responsiveness of the National Health Service, to be defined by the member of the Government responsible for the health area. An Order has now been published with details of these and can be downloaded in English from our Covid-19 Risk page.
https://www.safecommunitiesportugal.com/major-incidents/covid-19-risk/
I recommend that you visit this page with the updated figures from the INSA which are usually published on Saturday mornings
The self-scheduling of Covid-19 vaccines for those age 16 and 17 years was available from yesterday, August 3, at the DGS site.
According to the Task Force – At this time, older people cannot schedule a vaccination because the portal “is only allocated to self-schedule for 16 and 17 year olds”. This group is for vacancies available for the 14th and 15th of August, so they will have full priority. There are more than 200,000 teenagers eligible for vaccination across the country. The task force stated that the portal should re-open for older age groups within days.
The Casa Aberta (Open House) scheme is now available to those 30 years of age and over. Users will now be able to schedule their “Casa Aberta” vaccination through a TICKET SYSTEM, in order to avoid queues. Please see our Facebook post yesterday and also our website Covid-19 Vaccinations page.
Turning to the subject of rural fires and other catastrophes; much of this is a result of extreme weather conditions, which we are experiencing in Portugal in respect of high temperatures, but also in the north of Europe concerning heavy rain and flooding.
We are focusing on this subject because of the high risk of rural fires in Portugal which will likely increase further as the weather becomes dryer. To help the foreign communities here in Portugal will also report on major catastrophes overseas, where families or friends may be affected.
Extreme weather is becoming far more frequent, and sets the conditions where fires can start and spread easily. Often these are a result of negligence and sometimes deliberately.
It is essential, and I repeat “essential”, therefore that we are fully aware of the fire risks, especially those living in high risk areas. We should know what action to take should a fire start, bearing in mind that fires can start and spread very quickly.
So we remind those in rural areas, especially high risk areas, to understand the fire risk in your area, develop a self-protection action plan, practice it and know what to do should a fire break out. Your life and that of your family could depend on the decisions you make and the action you take.
I will be covering this topic in more detail in a special feature in this Thursday’s Algarve Resident.
With this please have a Safe Day
DGS Covid-19 Report Tuesday 3rd August 2021
Confirmed Cases: 974.203 (+ 2076 / + 0.21 %)
Number of admitted: 945 (-23 /-2.38 %)
Number of ICU admitted: 204 (+ 1 / + 0.49 %)
Deaths: 17.397 (+ 19 / + 0.11 %)
Recovered: 909.330 (+ 4368 / + 0.48 %)
Active cases: 47,476 (-2311/–4.6%)
Safe Communities comparisons/trends show that deaths were double that of the previous day and nearly double last weeks’ daily average; new daily cases were nearly double that of Monday’s but still below last week’s daily average. As far as hospitalisations are concerned there was a moderate decrease following Monday’s’ large increase, but still second highest since 15th March. In ICU there was another small increase, and in so far as active cases are concerned there was a very large decrease for one day, the lowest total since 14th July 2021
Health
Vaccines for 16 and 17 year olds
The self-scheduling of Covid-19 vaccines for those age 16 and 17 years was available from yesterday, August 3, at the DGS site.
According to the Task Force – At this time, older people cannot schedule vaccination because the portal “is only allocated to self-schedule for 16 and 17 year olds”. This group has vacancies available for the 14th and 15th of August, so they will have full priority. There are more than 200,000 teenagers eligible for vaccination across the country.
This came into effect a few hours ago and appointments can be made in the same way as older age groups on the DGS website.
At this time, older people cannot schedule vaccination because the portal “is only allocated to these ages”, confirms the task force, which recalls that young people were considered a priority in this phase before the start of the new academic year. “It’s a constraint on the system”, he justifies, noting that the portal will open again for other age groups “within a few days”.
COVID 19 – Vaccination “Casa Aberta” is now available for 30s and over
The announcement was made yesterday by the coordinator of the task force, Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, who also said that this regime would no longer be conditioned to the use of the Janssen vaccine (from Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals), in vaccination centers that have other brands available.
Users will now be able to schedule their “Casa Aberta” vaccination through a TICKET SYSTEM, in order to avoid queues. The ticket scheme using a digital password is here.
Gouveia e Melo stressed that this system is already being tested in some places and will be generalized next week.
The “Casa Aberta” allows for the vaccination of first doses by people +30s, who have not scheduled a vaccine and who have not been infected with Covid-19 in the past six months.
DGS Reduces interval between doses of Pfizer’s vaccine
The changes were announced in DGS Standard 021/2020 of 3 August 2021 “n5. Vaccination schedule of the COMIRNATY® vaccine – Recommended vaccination schedule: 2 doses with an interval of 21 to 28 days.”
Pfizer/BioNtech is the most used brand of vaccines against Covid-19 in Portugal. New interval is flexible.
A change that confirms what had already been requested by the coordinator of the vaccination task force, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo, to be able to vaccinate the younger people group before the start of the school year.
And above all, given the prospect of the arrival of one million vaccines from Pfizer next week, it is expected that it will be possible to speed up the vaccination process again.
Blood donations
The Portuguese Federation of Benevolent Blood Donors (FEPODABES) launched, this Tuesday, an appeal so that “citizens continue to give blood at this time of year”.
According to the website dodor.pt , the reserves of the Portuguese Institute of Blood and Transplantation (IPST) referring to negative groups are the most worrying. Type O- and B- have reservations for up to four days and type A- for four to seven days. AB- and O+ groups have reservations of seven to 10 days. Groups AB+, A+ and B+ will last for more than 10 days.
In the summer and in time of pandemic, “hospitals continue to need blood to meet the needs of their patients”, warns FEPODABES, calling for “all citizens over 18 years old, weighing more than 50 kilos and that they are healthy, make your gift”.
“Right now we are in need of blood donors of blood groups 0-, A-, B- very low reserves”, he emphasizes.
To respond to this need, it continues to promote summer campaigns. Collection locations and dates can be found on the official website www.fepodabes.pt .
“Summer is a time of the year when the availability of citizens to donate blood is reduced, so FEPODABES decided to promote this summer campaign to contribute to the maintenance of blood reserves”, he explains.
Alberto Mota, president of FEPODABES, insists that it is “very important that people make their donation before leaving for the well-deserved vacation, because even in the summer hospitals need blood.” This call to mobilize citizens is also aimed at “remembering that giving blood is a benevolent gesture that can save lives”, he concludes.
There was also a great deal on focus on the success of the vaccination plan in which Portugal stands out with one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe and on 25th July being placed at 9th place in the world according to Our World in Data. The plan is to extend vaccinations down to 16 and 17 year olds starting 14th August. Clearly this is important given that the greatest increases in cases are in the younger age groups.
There is greater incidence in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, as well as in the Algarve. In Lisbon and the Algarve, there is already “a trend of stabilization or descent”. In Porto, there are still “growth areas”, since, here, the resurgence of the pandemic occurred after it had occurred in Lisbon.
Infarmed has received more than 11,000 reports of side effects from vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. Of these, four thousand were considered serious.
Underlining the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on patient care, particularly with regard to chronic patients, the Ordem dos Enfermeiros (OE) wants to accelerate the implementation of the family nurse figure in terms of health care.
Good morning – this week has seen a lot of activity surrounding fires throughout the country. We should never underestimate the work that these volunteer fire fighters take on in extreme conditions to keep us safe. Our thanks go out to all those who are involved in these activities.
This week we have seen a number of issues surrounding cybercrime and fraud and this is highlighted in a report in Expresso that says credit cards and payments made on the Portal da Queixa increased 130% in the period between 1st January and 15th July, compared to the same period last year. According to the consumer support platform, “an increase that was transversal to all entities included in this category”, occurred, namely the Universo Card, WiZink Card, Revolut Card and Cyrana Card, details the Portal da Queixa in a statement released this Tuesday.
Finally, for anyone travelling through the country’s airports in the past few days they will be aware of the chaos due to the strike by the ground handlers at Lisbon and Faro. For those who are not aware, the issue here is that these workers have not been receiving their full salaries for some time and there is no sight of this changing, although we understand that the government is now involved and hopes to come up with a solution soon.
According to the latest status report released on Sunday by the Castro Marim City Council, the county has 14 active cases, 410 recovered and 2 deaths. In Tavira there were, on Monday, 61 (+1) cases of coronavirus, 170 (-5) in isolation, 1699 (+5) recovered and 29 deaths, according to the municipality’s Facebook page. In Alcoutim, the municipality registered on Saturday, 5 active cases.
The lifting by the United Kingdom of the quarantine imposed on travellers from Portugal is a “step forward” for tourism and the Algarve hotel industry is “expectant” regarding the impact of the measure on reservations, according to the main regional hotel association. “The measure is yet another step towards lifting restrictions, which in practice have impeded and continue to impede travel, and we are somewhat expectant about the impact this could have on increased demand from tourists British,” said today, to the Lusa agency, the President of the Association of Hotels and Touristic Enterprises of the Algarve (AHETA), Elidérico Viegas.
On Tuesday, the vaccination open day using spare doses of AstraZeneca vaccine was a huge success. The spare doses were available for those aged 18 or older, who merely had to turn up at the vaccination centre in Funchal (Madeira Tecnopólo) in order to be inoculated. There was no need for booking a vaccination slot. By 18h00, about 1,000 vaccine doses had been administered, 600 of which had been first doses. The success of this vaccination open day meant that a second vaccination open day was announced. It will take place on July 27th.
The young man has been missing for about a week and the case was reported to the Public Ministry, so that the procedures to be followed in the investigation can be started.
Two years after the approval of measures to strengthen responses to prevent and combat domestic violence, the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality highlighted the intervention model of victim support offices (GAV) in the Departments of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP), which is now being evaluated, and which started with offices in Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Lisbon West, Lisbon North and Faro, but should be expanded.
Good morning – We start today by extending our condolences to the families and friends of those who died in the floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as other countries. This is a tragedy beyond all proportions, in terms of deaths, injuries and widespread destruction.
In crisis situations, debate on Facebook, which is not focused on the facts can create unnecessary, unrelated and long threads. This has a negative impact and makes it more difficult for people to find factual information and answers to questions. In critical situations such delays can even place lives at risk. Where such comments detract from the main topic, be it a health crisis or major fire for instance, we will delete these in the interests of the majority and in order to achieve our mission. The “about us” section on our Facebook page is very clear on this subject.
At this moment, about 95% of the population over 50 years living on the continent already has a dose of the vaccine administered and 85% has completed vaccination. It should also be noted that, of the adult population residing on the continent, 74% already have a dose of the vaccine and 55% have the complete vaccination schedule.
On a visit to the vaccination centre in Oeiras, this Friday, Marta Temido admitted the hypothesis that Lisbon is already going through the peak of a fourth wave, acknowledging, however, that more data are needed and praising the vaccination efforts.
In the letter, released by some media, the 20 signatories portray the current situation in the country, stating that in the last 14 days (until July 8th), the covid-19 mortality rate was 0.03 per 100,000 population, against a mortality rate from other diseases and causes of death of 2.7 per 100,000.
According to data released this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in May there were 2,602 celebrations, which represents an increase of 88.4% from April to May.