Year: 2021

The State of Emergency Monitoring Structure met on Monday 1st November, under the coordination of the Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, to take stock of the implementation of the measures in force in the context of combating the Covid-19 pandemic.

This structure monitors and produces regular information on the measures in force in the continent and in the context of the pandemic, having met today for the 23rd time since March 2020.

In this meeting, by videoconference, the Secretaries of State of the various governmental and regional coordination areas participated, in addition to the heads of the Security Forces and Services (GNR, PSP, SEF and ASAE), of the National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection (ANEPC ) and the Armed Forces.

Among the various topics addressed by the different areas, the highlight is the global reduction in pandemic numbers – although there are still 680 active outbreaks in Covid-19 (166 less than two weeks ago) and there are 8 Rear Support Structures in use.

The extension of the vaccination program already translates into a rate of 44% in the GNR (corresponding to 8 930 military and civilian personnel from the Health Service) and 46% in the PSP (8,463 police).

With regard to firefighters, the 15 000 firefighters initially indicated as priority have already been vaccinated.

The following enforcement report was tabled

Report on the enforcement actions of GNR and PSP in the scope of the measures to combat COVID-19 (between the 15th and 28th of February)

In compliance with the provisions of the Decree regulating the State of Emergency, the National Republican Guard and the Public Security Police have developed an intense activity of awareness, vigilance and monitoring among the population.

Thus, between 00h00 on 15 February and 23h59 on 28 February 2021, 31 people were arrested for the crime of disobedience, 11 of which for violation of the obligation of compulsory confinement.

In the same period, the 14,565 inspections carried out led to the closure of 47 establishments for non-compliance with the established norms.

In this period, the GNR and PSP issued a total of 9,416 administrative offence notices, of which:

– Failure to comply with the general duty of home collection: 6,034

– Failure to comply with the limitation on movement between municipalities: 1,621

– Failure to wear masks on the roads and public spaces: 563

– Failure to comply with the prohibition on consuming alcoholic drinks on public roads: 420

– Not in compliance with the operating rules of restaurants and similar establishments: 130

– Not in compliance with the ban on consuming meals or products outside or near establishments: 96

– Not in compliance with the rules on the sale of alcoholic drinks: 78

– Not in compliance with the rules of occupancy, capacity, permanence, physical distance and means of prior booking in places open to the public: 63

– Failure to close premises and establishments: 61

– Not in compliance with the rules for celebrations and other events: 58

– Not in compliance with the rules for physical and sporting activities: 57

– Not in compliance with the occupancy rules of private vehicles: 49

– Not in compliance with opening hours: 41

– Not in compliance with the prohibition on selling certain goods in shops: 29

– Non-compliance with the mandatory wearing of masks in entertainment venues, public establishments and others: 28

– Non-compliance with the suspension of activity of facilities and establishments: 21

– Failure to comply with the requirement to wear a mask on public transport: 19

– Failure to comply with rules on maximum capacity limits on public transport: 19

– Failure to comply with measures in connection with residential facilities and other accommodation and care facilities: 16

– Non-compliance with limits on charging fees and commissions in the catering sector by intermediary platforms: 7

– Failure to comply with the rules on restriction, suspension or closure of activities or separation of persons who are not ill: 4

– Failure to comply with the prohibition on advertising commercial practices with price reductions: 2

 

Just over 50 years ago, mainland Portugal was shaken by the biggest earthquake since the 1755 earthquake – 13 people died and some houses fell. The population was frightened and, freezing, spent the night away from home.

It was four hellish minutes – roughly between 3:41 am and 3:45 am on 28^th February. A country, in a panic, took to the street half naked or in pyjamas. Portugal was plagued by the biggest earthquake since the 1755 earthquake. The south, namely the Algarve, and the Lisbon region were the areas most affected by the 7.9 earthquake on the Richter scale, which was also felt in Spain and Morocco. Thirteen people died, two as a direct result of the quake and 11 indirectly and several dozen were injured.

That Friday morning, it was described as dramatic by the newspapers of the time. “With the earth, the men and women who inhabit it trembled. Because yesterday, only two kinds of people did not tremble, again the unconscious and the liars, “wrote Jornal de Notícias.

In the Algarve, the scenario was more serious. The destruction was greater, with the village of Bensafrim, near Lagos, being practically destroyed – about 50 houses were thrown to the ground by the earthquake. In this region, there were many houses and monuments, mainly churches, affected by the earthquake.

The Castro Marim Hospital, according to the DN’s envoy, was practically destroyed. In the village of Casseia, several houses collapsed and the church, rebuilt after the 1775 earthquake, suffered considerable damage.

The epicentre took place in the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Cabo de São Vicente (Vila do Bispo). It was in that sea that “Manuel Vicente” sailed, a mixed cargo and passenger ship that made the connection between Portugal and Angola. And it was this sea that the ship’s captain would come to describe as the bubbling of a pot of boiling water.

The day after the earthquake, the DN dedicated the entire first page to the event: “An eternity in a few seconds: It will take a long time to forget the dread of the last dawn of February”, he said.

“‘Terrible! It was ghastly! ‘ So many people expressed themselves with the mask of fear raised to the highest scale on their faces, with whom we contacted immediately after the prolonged and violent earthquake, and who jostled in the streets, possessed by the bigger and natural fear of repetition of the telluric phenomenon were in tight costumes, many as they were lying, and that, in their eagerness to get out to the outside, home disbanded – they came to believe that collapsed – without bothering to grab any coat “, read in the report made in the streets of Lisbon, when the country was still awake, afraid of what might be yet to come.

The report continues: “Outside, everyone shivered with cold; there was a lot of humidity; light rain, which penetrated the bones”

The panic returned at 5:28 am, when a small response was felt. But “the tormented state of all spirits” led him to believe that it was again a tremendous shock.

Many people spent the night on the street, the photos show people on the sidewalks, others on garden benches, wrapped in blankets.

The night was startled, with fear. Lisbon woke up with the inhabitants still out of the house, each commenting on what he had seen and what he had felt. Many said that the sky had taken on a red colour, reminiscent of a northern lights, then they saw a quick but intense light. The day dawned with few clouds in the sky, with the sun shining, but with a lot of destruction: cars buried under fallen walls; the São José hospitals (where part of them had to be evacuated) and the Curry Cabral were also damaged.

It was a time when there were no cell phones and people lined up in robes and nightshirts near the phone booths: everyone wanted to know if theirs were safe, but communications were not easy, with a lack of network, destroyed devices, lines constantly interrupted.

Those who could not make the call, and there were many of them, called 13, the number of faults, located in Rua da Trindade, in Lisbon, where 25 telephone operators were on duty that night – “Emotional and sensitive human beings like all of us. Simply it happened that in that post, the woman has to be the operator. And she cannot leave the post. It was, therefore, with tears and nerves that this handful of girls continued to attend, to work, to make it possible for other people expand the same tears and let go of the same nerves “, wrote the Diário de Notícias.

At three in the morning on Saturday there were still between 10,000 and 12,000 phone calls to be made from Lisbon to the rest of the country.

The DN tells the case of Paulo Alexandre, three years old, from Boliqueime, except for his grandparents, who removed him from the cradle where he was almost suffocated by stones and debris. In Lagos, in the São José area, close to the barracks, a family was barely saved – as soon as they set foot on the street, the house where they lived collapsed in ruins.

In the following days, it was also known the testimony of the commander of “Manuel Vicente”, the ship that is sailing at the epicentre of the earthquake. Commander Oliveira Manata was at the time, reading. It was 1:43 local and he realized that the ship was behaving in a strange way. He began to pant, an expression that in nautical language means a movement similar to the opening and closing of the hand. “Although built in iron, the boat has a certain elasticity, but at that time he felt his effort. Soon after, he stopped panting and started to vibrate with great force.”

He put on his robe to see what was going on, he still thought that the vessel had lost its propeller or that one of the machines had the flu and the other was dragging, but the chief engineer had already done that check. The boat was badly shaken.

 

Portugal will buy about 38 million vaccines against covid-19, “much more” than necessary, allowing support to other countries, announced the Minister of Health who already admits to space the taking of second dose.

“We are currently in the process of contracting something like 38 million vaccines,” said Marta Temido in an interview with the Lusa agency, about a year ago about the appearance of the first two cases of infection by the new coronavirus in Portugal, on 02 March 2020.

A number of vaccines are, said the minister, “much more than what the needs for the full vaccination of the Portuguese population will be” and which allows to guarantee support to other countries.

“If anything this pandemic taught us, it was that only when everyone is safe, will each of us be safe,” he said.

Regarding the proposal of the coordinator of the vaccination plan against covid-19, Gouveia e Melo, to postpone taking the second dose of the vaccine to allow another 200 thousand people to vaccinate until the end of March, Marta Temido said that “this technical change is designed and will come into effect as soon as the new vaccinations are made ”, given that this measure does not affect those who have been vaccinated and already have their second administration scheduled.

“It’s not about not taking the second dose or even exceeding” the interval defined in clinical trials, it’s just a matter of managing quantities and being able to “protect more people, faster, ensuring that the proposed objectives” are achieved.

“The General Directorate of Health, the Infarmed and the ‘task force’ for vaccination have analysed the possibility of a greater spacing between doses and consider that this possibility is technically adequate while maintaining the recommendations of what the characteristics of the medicine are,” he said.

Since December 27, more than 860 thousand doses of vaccines have been administered in Portugal. “Having 70% of the population vaccinated at the end of the summer remains the goal”, he said, admitting, however, to be “an ambitious goal”: “We know that we will have to monitor the process carefully and with availability for adjustments”.

As for tests on covid-19, he said that 8.1 million tests have already been carried out, placing Portugal among “the countries that test the most in the European Union”.

The testing strategy has changed and all contacts now carry out a test, regardless of the level of risk, allowing to expand the universe of tested.

On the other hand, in a scenario of lack of definition, as is being planned, there will be “a previous moment” that will involve testing people who work in “more exposed activities”.

“We are not going to be testing ten million Portuguese every 15 days. There would be no tests, no human means, no financial means and it would be a waste, “but there will be a measurement based on” technical criteria, criteria of reasonability “based on the evidence that already exists about other testing strategies in other countries.

What is intended, he explained, is that before the start of certain activities, screening campaigns are guaranteed and that sectors of industrial, commercial, cultural activity can have the practice of internalized testing in the same way as, for example, periodic medical examinations in terms of occupational health or health at work.

Also in certain activities under the responsibility of the State, such as Education, there will be tests to return to face-to-face activity, which will then be done regularly.

Social adherence to testing is also “absolutely essential”.

“Knowing that there are many variants to emerge, the test has this value of at every moment understanding how the transmission is and even detecting new variants that may be more aggressive”, he stressed.

Asked about the investment made in tests, the minister said: “a lot”, remembering that the SNS has already carried out millions of tests that at the beginning cost almost 100 euros each.

“It was a significant expense in terms of the country’s laboratory capacity,” he said, stressing that the NHS alone invested around eight million euros in the improvement of its laboratories, without relying on reagents or human resources.

HN / SO // SB

“In general, there are worse performances in the predominantly rural areas” of mainland Portugal, concludes a study carried out by the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM) in five regions

The performance of the mobile Internet is worse in the predominantly rural areas of mainland Portugal, according to studies evaluating the performance of mobile services of the Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (Anacom) in five regions.

With the use of telecommuting and distance learning, following the state of emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic, the topic of Internet access has been on the agenda, with several complaints about the difficulties in some regions of the country in access ‘online’.

Anacom carried out five studies to assess the performance of mobile voice and data (Internet) services and GSM (2G), UMTS (3G) and LTE (4G) coverage provided by Meo (Altice Portugal), NOS and Vodafone Portugal in Alentejo , Algarve, Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), Center and North.

Overall, predominantly rural areas are those that have the worst performance in terms of mobile Internet access, compared to urban areas.

In Alentejo, voice and file transfer services “register good global performances, with differences between operators and between types of urban areas in terms of data transfer speed, both in download and upload being more visible”, according to the study.

In the data transfer speed indicator, “the best performances are observed in predominantly urban areas”, concludes the study carried out between May 7 and 28, 2019, having covered 3,539 kms, of which 342 were in tests.

In the predominantly urban areas of Alentejo “the best performances are observed, with average success rates in the establishment and maintenance of data sessions of 97.7%, in the transfer of the reference web page, and 93.8% in the transfer of the public web page, with statistically significant differences from the other urban typologies “.

In other words, performance is better than in rural or moderately urban areas.

Also in the Algarve, whose fieldwork took place between 20 and 29 October, where 273 kms of tests were covered, surfing the Internet in rural areas can be difficult, and in certain medium-urban areas difficulties are also detected.

Internet video and YouTube navigation services ‘video streaming’ and also the data transmission latency in the Algarve “show lower performance, compared to the transfer of files, also observing some differences between operators and typologies of urban areas”, says the study, adding that, “in general, there are worse performances in moderately urban and predominantly rural areas”.

It also points out that in the predominantly rural and moderately urban areas of the Algarve “there are the worst performances” of the indicator of duration of transfer of the web page, “without statistically significant differences between them, but with statistically significant differences” compared to the predominantly urban ones.

Also in the Center, mobile Internet navigation services recorded “worst performances in predominantly rural areas”.

With regard to file transfer, “there is a good overall performance, with some differences in performance between operators and, more markedly, between the typologies of urban areas”.

The ability to establish and retain file transfer sessions and data transfer speed (‘download’ and ‘upload’) “present a marked degradation in predominantly rural areas”, the study points out.

In Internet browsing services and YouTube ‘video streaming’, “and also the data transmission latency, present lower performances, in relation to the transfer of files, observing also some differences between the operators and, more accentuated, between typologies of urban areas “.

Once again, “generally speaking, there are worse performances in predominantly rural areas”, concludes the study, which took place between the 4th and the 18th of December last, having been covered 344 kms in tests.

In the North, with regard to file transfer, “in predominantly rural areas there is a marked degradation” in the ratio of termination of data sessions. Here, too, at the speed of data transfer, the best performances are in predominantly urban areas.

In terms of establishment and retention of data sessions, in the most rural areas the levels of the indicator “do not exceed 80.3%”, against ratios greater than 99.4% in the predominantly urban ones, it is read in the study, that ran between 03 and February 13, 2020, with 3,255 kms covered, of which 303 were in tests.

 

 

New state of emergency, government decree-law has “no change”, says António Costa.

“The measures have continued to produce the desired effects in controlling the pandemic. This is evidenced by the reduction in the transmissibility factor of the disease, the famous R, which is relatively stable, and a continued decrease in new cases”

Costa says that “this is not yet the time for the deconfinement”, although Portugal continues “sustainably” to see the number of new daily cases of infection decrease.

The Prime Minister underlined the “clear improvement” in the European context, when the country was the worst in the EU just two weeks ago.

However, he warned, “all improvements are relative”, this being “the second reason for maintaining the measures “. Portugal is better, but still with levels of new cases and hospitalizations four times above the beginning of the deconfinement of May 2020.

And Costa adds a risk factor: “A very high incidence of the British variant (49%), with a higher risk of contagion. This also justifies the greatest prudence regarding the deconfinement.”

And another one: “We have been executing a vaccination plan. We can confirm only the objective of having 80% of people over the age of 80 vaccinated in March, as well as the full vaccination of those over 50 years of age with major comorbidities.”

“I am certainly the first to share the same anxiety so that we can quickly turn the page on this confinement and I am well aware of the cost to everyone’s life,” said the prime minister. “I am well aware of the cost for the companies, for those who have lost their jobs,” he added, ensuring that the Government has sought to “always maintain balance”.

António Costa said that he will present the deconfinement plan on March 11th.

Costa said, that it is early to be discussing dates and measures of that plan as there is a message that the Portuguese should set for the next fifteen days. “We must remain confined for the next 15 days. This is the message, nothing should change” and “We must avoid confusing citizens with messages that end up inducing wrong behaviour.”

“As for schools, it is known that the Government resisted as much as it could to close schools, because we are aware of the cost that it has in the children’s learning process. Therefore, it was really the last step we took and, therefore, it is natural that it will be the first measure to be announced, that of the reopening of schools “, announced Costa.

After some insisting questions “As we did a year ago, it will be a gradual opening plan, which will progressively cover successive areas of activities and will be guided by a set of objective criteria that will allow us to measure the evolution of the pandemic, “said the Prime Minister.

Asked about the Government’s relationship with the President of the Republic in adoption of the measures, Costa said that “as the President of the Republic made clear yesterday, there has been institutional solidarity between all since the beginning of the pandemic”.

“It is necessary that the country respects and accepts the measures that we have been announcing. So far, there has been no measure that was adopted without total consonance between the Government and the President of the Republic “, guaranteed.

“We are living in a dangerous phase. There may be the illusion that the worst has already been overcome and that we are not in danger of regressing. If there is one thing we have to strive for, it is not to regress in something achieved with such a sacrifice by the Portuguese.” warned Costa.

We have to avoid going backwards at all costs. On March the 2nd, it’s the anniversary of the first case. We have lived since then moments of great optimism, of great difficulty, but there was always something that the Portuguese understood well: that the best possible balance was necessary. We will have succeeded sometimes, sometimes not so well. But we have to be very careful.” said Costa.

The Lagos Municipal Assembly unanimously approved a proposal for the commemoration of the centenary of the train’s arrival in Lagos – 1922-2022.

The proposal was approved at the first regular meeting in February / 2021, held on February 22.

Thus, following the decision, a Municipal Commission will be created for the Commemorations of the Centenary of the Arrival of the Train to Lagos, with the participation of the Municipality of Lagos and the Parish Councils of the municipality, together with the Permanent Commission of the Municipal Assembly.

There will soon be a first meeting to establish the calendar and schedule for the celebrations.

Lagos has a heritage attached to the National Railway Museum that rusts away .

A carriage and steam locomotives from the end of the 19th century are among the assets of the Núcleo Ferroviário de Lagos that could be of interest to the city and the region, and which have remained without an exhibition solution for years.

In 2022, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first train in Lagos and the festivities that accompanied the inauguration of the Portimão-Lagos railway branch that completed the Algarve Line.

In the 19th century, the invention of the steam engine had given rise to the Industrial Revolution, where its application in railway locomotives had an important role, with effects that endure today.

The railway environment revolutionized the daily lives of the people, and the initial fear caused by those superb and noisy locomotives, was followed by the enormous fascination with their power and speed.

The train quickly took a place in the imagination of children and adults, replacing the carriages and horses of yore.

Wherever it came from, the train became part of peoples’ daily lives, greatly shortening distances and reducing the size of the world.

In Portugal it was no different, the railroad united the communities and brought progress to all districts in the country. For more than a century the train has assumed itself as the symbol of evolution and the railways as a paradigm of organization and mechanization . ”

In Portugal, the first train journey was in 1858, with the opening, lined with curious adventures, of the Lisbon-Carregado line.

A Law of 1883 foresaw the railway line to the Algarve and the Lagos branch project is from 1899, although the original project, dated 1882 and later abandoned, foresaw the construction of the Lagos station in Rossio de S. João on the right bank of Ribeira de Bensafrim, continuing with the railway line through Vila do Bispo, Aljezur, Odemira, with a branch to Sines.

In Lagos, there was perfect awareness of the development that the railway would allow and, in this sense, a meeting was held here in 1889 «of all classes of society» with representatives of the Municipalities of Vila do Bispo, Aljezur and Odemira, to create a commission to demand from the government the construction of the railway from Lagos to Odemira and a port of refuge in Lagos for the transport and export of products from all over that area.

In the same year, 1889, the train arrived in Faro and in 1897 King D. Carlos promised, in Faro and Lagos, the work of extending the train lines from the Algarve to VRSA and Lagos.

In 1902 the train arrived in Silves, in 1903 at Ferragudo which remained as a station at Vila Nova de Portimão, in 1906 at Vila Real de Santo António.

The interest in completing the Lagos branch line was considered so necessary for the economy of the Barlavento, that in 1912 Parliament had granted authorization, at the request of the Lagos City Council, to contract a loan of 500 contos to take over the construction of the branch since Portimão to Lagos, an intention that followed, with the transfer of the work to the company, then created, of the Portuguese Railways.

In 1915 the railway bridge over Arade was completed and the train arrived in Portimão.

It is worth remembering that in 1911, the Lagos City Council had proposed the creation of an itinerary of tourist interest, on a railway connecting Lagos to London through Vila Real de Santo António, Huelva, Seville, Madrid and Paris, before half a century that which was only realized from the 1950s / 60s, in the after World War II.

It was an idea that reflected well the progressive facet and the opening of dominant thought in the people of the young Portuguese Republic, which the monarchies refused to recognize until the intervention of the Algarve President of the Republic Teixeira Gomes, from Portimão.

In fact, this broad scale of thinking has been interrupted and hidden by the narrowness of views of the nearly 50 years of Salazar, who left deep marks that today afflict numerous citizens, still unable to look beyond the old inheritance of the parish dimension.

Only finally, on July 30, 1922, a special train made the direct connection from Barreiro to Lagos, with the President of the Ministry, the Minister of Labor and the Director of the Southern and Southeastern Railway, to which the Minister joined do Comércio, who was visiting the Barlavento counties, a delegation from Vila do Barreiro formed by the bands of the Democratic Society União Barreirense and the Society of Instruction and Recreation of Barreiro, representatives of the Grupo Dramático Herculano Marinho and the Futebol Clube Barreirense team .

All participated in the festivities in Lagos, where three days of official ceremonies and popular celebrations celebrated the arrival of the first train, widely reported and reported in the national and regional press.

The regional and national importance of the arrival of the first train in Lagos cannot be ignored during the passage of its centenary and the Municipality of Lagos must recognize it by paying special attention to it.

The United Kingdom, with more cases, and Italy, with more weight in community transmission, were the countries with the greatest impact at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, a study by the Ricardo Jorge Health Institute reveals today.

At least 277 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 from 36 countries entered Portugal by March 31, 2020, with the majority from the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland,

Another of the study’s conclusions is that, although the first cases of covid-19 notified in Portugal report on March 2, 2020, potential introductions will have occurred in late January, most of which occurred in the last week of February, in a “community transmission that was already running silently”.

The conclusions are part of “an extensive study of the genetic diversity of the new coronavirus” that INSA has been carrying out since the beginning of the pandemic, with the main objective of identifying the main introductions of the virus in the country, namely the countries that will have contributed more to this situation, said the agency Lusa Joana Isidro, of the Nucleus of Bioinformatics of the Department of Infectious Diseases.

“In March 2020, there was a huge effort, together with multiple laboratories and hospitals, to be able to collect samples and obtain the genetic information of the viruses that circulated in this initial phase of the pandemic and that made us one of the countries [the fifth in the world] ] who managed to collect more information on the genetic information of the new coronavirus “at this stage of the epidemic, said Joana Isidro.

Investigator Vítor Borges added that 1,275 virus samples collected in Portugal until the end of March were analyzed, representing 15.5% of confirmed cases in that period.

With these sequences it was possible to predict, based on the genetic uniqueness and with the travel history associated with the patients from which these samples were collected, that there were at least 277 independent introductions of the virus in Portugal until March 31 from “multiple countries”, such as the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, the Netherlands, Andorra and Iceland.

According to the researchers, the country that has contributed with the largest number of introductions was the United Kingdom, followed by France, Spain and Italy.

“Each of these introductions had a different impact. There were introductions that had very limited transmission chains and caused few cases, while there were others that caused many cases”, underlined Vitor Borges.

Although Italy had far fewer introductions than, for example, the United Kingdom, it was the country that had the most weight in community broadcasting in Portugal.

It is estimated that a contagion that occurred in the Lombardy region around the 21st of February has caused about 4,000 cases of covid-19 in Portugal, spread over 44 municipalities in 11 districts, almost exclusively in the North and Center Region, where it is estimated which was responsible for about 20% and 60% of cases, respectively in these two regions, during the first phase of the epidemic.

Regarding the number of infections coming from each country and in which region of Portugal they will have been introduced, the study points out that the United Kingdom had a “great weight”, with many entries in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and in the North.

“Spain had transversal introductions throughout the country,” said Vítor Borges, pointing out the “very curious” fact that many entries have taken place in the border regions.

This situation denotes that, in addition to introductions by air of infected patients who returned to the country or tourists, there were also many introductions in the border exchange between the two countries, he explained.

According to the researchers, many of the variants that had a major impact in the beginning of the pandemic, such as that of Italy, were not found in a large national sample that INSA carried out in November, which shows that the public health measures taken were able to mitigate this spread.

 

 

 

In this fortnight, we significantly reduced the number of infected and the number of dead. And the virus spread indicator reached its lowest levels in a year.

Everything, proving your lucidity, determination and courage.

In this situation, it is very tempting to defend that it is necessary to open and deconfine as soon as possible. And schools would be the sector most proposed to start this opening.

The reasons invoked, we all know them.

The positive evolution would no longer fall and, if it had, it would not be for the values ​​of a month ago.

The economy and society are in deep crisis.

Culture, associative movement, youth sports, restaurants, hotels and a lot of commerce suffer even more.

Mental health is increasingly undermined.

Schools and children and young people, in particular – see their second academic year run over.

It would be enough to guarantee the existence of a faster and wider vaccination. It would be enough to cover whatever was opening. Starting with schools, vaccinating earlier in schools. It would also suffice to ensure broader and more urgent testing and screening. In the case of schools, with simple, quick, but reliable tests.

With the double security of vaccines and tests, it would be possible to deconfine, in stages, without the risks taken in the past.

These are the reasons for those who want or wait for the announcement of immediate steps to end last month’s regime.

Everything that is said has logic, corresponds to what many Portuguese think and is seductive.

It is even the most seductive, given the fatigue of these demanding weeks.

There’s another side of the story.

The number of hospitalized patients is still almost double that indicated by intensivists, who are on the ground dealing with the most serious. The number in intensive care is more than double of that recommended, to avoid risks of further collapse.”

You can never say that there is no relapse or retreat and the numbers that have put us in the place of the worst in Europe and the worst in the world are not from a year or months ago, are from a month ago, as are from three weeks ago the queues of ambulances outside hospitals.

Worse than what the economy, society, mental health and schools are experiencing now, would be if we had to return to what we have just experienced now, the next weeks or months.

We know that due to the delay in the delivery of vaccines, there will probably not be vaccination in the next month, month and a half, which guarantees everything that we want to guarantee, right from the schools.

We know that testing and tracking, in a very short period, in terms that allow the necessary security, can be complicated, even if only for schools.

These opposite reasons, which make you think twice about creating expectations of hurried openings, however seductive they may be.

So what is the challenge for those who have to decide?

The answer is simple.

Deciding must be based on the conscience of the decision maker, and not on the concern to follow the opinion of each moment. Which at one time wants to close it out of fear, and after wants to open it out of tiredness.

Deciding in conscience is based on objective and clear criteria, such as indicators of the severity of the pandemic, pressure on health structures, vaccination, testing, screening and must bear in mind the right signals to give to the Portuguese.

Deciding presupposes, in this pandemic, institutional solidarity and strategic solidarity between the President of the Republic, the Assembly of the Republic and the Government. With a single purpose – to face the common cause together. So it has been. So it will continue to be.

It being true that the President of the Republic is, by the very nature of things, primarily responsible.

Portuguese,

I said and I repeat today.

We have to win this year’s summer and autumn until Easter.

In other words, Easter is a risky time for confused or contradictory messages.

Like, for example, opening without criteria before Easter, to close it immediately afterwards, to open again after it. Who would take paschal rigor seriously?

It is, therefore, a matter of prudence and security to maintain Easter as the essential milestone for the current strategy.

Can this mean more mobility, by saturation? It can. But a wrong sign of a misunderstood facility can also. Can do it even more.

Does this imply a few more weeks of heavy sacrifices and, therefore, that the State goes further in emergency measures and in support of the future start-up? It implies. But the alternative could be having to take the same measures later, multiplied by two or three.

In short, let the next days be of studying and preparing it well.

But, let the day after be better chosen, without precipitations, to not repeat what has already happened.

And never confuse studying and planning with deconfinement.

To be more clear: planning for the future is essential, but to rush for a deconfinement because of the numbers these days will be as tempting as it is frivolous. Even because we know the numbers always go up faster than they go down.

Quoting an almost classic: “A people that does not know its history, is condemned to repeat it”.

We know this year’s pandemic history well.

We will not make the same mistakes.

And we have the hope – not the hope, the certainty – that if we are sensible, the worst is over.

The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, António Costa, meet this Monday with experts. On the table in this meeting of Infarmed will be the evolution of the epidemiological situation of Covid-19 in Portugal.

André Peralta Santos, Directorate-General for Health,is speaking about the evolution of incidence and transmissibility.

Baltazar Nunes, from the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), will update the surveillance of genetic variants of the new coronavirus in Portugal.

The meeting will also include interventions by João Paulo Gomes, from INSA; João Gouveia, from the Coordination of Response in Intensive Care Medicine; Carla Nunes, from the National School of Public Health, Universidade Nova de Lisboa; Henrique de Barros, Institute of Public Health at the University of Porto; and Lieutenant Colonel Gouveia e Melo, coordinator of the “task force” for the Vaccination Plan against Covid-19 in Portugal.

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Baltazar Nunes: contagion rate is the lowest since the beginning of the epidemic

Baltazar Nunes, from the Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute now speaks.

The recipe for the “new normal” in intensive care, still “very fragile

Now João Gouveia speaks to talk about the answer in Intensive Care Medicine.

It starts by giving some data, the most important for the “new normal”: less than 242 hospitalized in intensive care beds with covid, 285 available beds and more than 600 for other patients. This is the point that specialists want to reach and João Gouveia now proposes to draw the “roadmap” to get there, criticizing the chronic shortage of financing in intensive care in Portugal.

In the last few months, he explains, we had two vacancies and a very high peak. The answer was possible with “a lot of effort” from the professionals, but also occupying spaces that should not be occupied with intensive medicine and even the construction of new spaces.

This capacity cannot, “unfortunately”, be maintained: it would take another 448 doctors and 1273 nurses, in terms of human resources alone, to maintain the response. In terms of number of beds, 914 is needed, a number “practically reached” at the end of the quarter.

To reach the desired number, it is necessary to control contagion, a transmission rate lower than 0.7, test more than high-risk contacts, have inquiries carried out in time and, above all, that vaccination runs “at an excellent rate”.

The “tidying up of the home” of intensive care can then happen if 1) it is possible to end forms of respiratory support and treatment outside of intensive care (they have been treated in structures that are not entirely adequate); that the occupancy rate in intensive care by covid is less than 80%; hospitals will need to have recovery plans, with a human resources plan to learn how and when to reopen their beds. If hospitalizations go up and the R (t) exceeds 1, this phase should be suspended.

This “return” of normal intensive care must be agreed upon, subject to a weekly assessment, maintaining critical covid beds per referral axis. “The situation of intensive care medicine in Portugal is still very fragile”, because it still depends on human resources that are not specifically in this area. Therefore, it will be necessary to complete the works in progress and “mainly” hire human resources, especially nurses, and launch the necessary competitions.

When will it be possible to get there, to the “new normal of intensive care medicine” (to the 245 patients in the ICU)? At the end of the third week of March. But only if all the assumptions are fulfilled.

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Portugal has already received 1 million vaccine doses. 4.5% of the population with at least one dose

Right now 7 out of 100 inhabitants already have at least one dose of the vaccine. In percentage, 4.5% of the population has already received at least one dose and 2.7% has the complete vaccination process, that is, with two inoculations and maximum protection.

Group immunity can be achieved in August

Henrique Gouveia e Melo, coordinator of the task force for the Vaccination Plan against covid-19, expects a reinforcement of vaccines in the 2nd and 3rd quarters that will allow to accelerate the vaccination process and reach 70% of the population with immunity in the middle or even early August.

Lisbon, February 15, 2021 (Lusa) – The project “Vizinhos à Janela”, a neighborhood initiative to combat isolation and loneliness during confinement due to the covid-19 pandemic, received today the “Civil Solidarity” award from the Economic and European Social Fund (EESC).

In a statement, the Committee added that it attributed the CESE Prize for Civil Solidarity to “Neighbors at the window”, in the “cultural offerings” category, noting that the “project was a brilliant example of remarkable civic responsibility and solidarity during the crisis of the covid- 19 ”.

The EESC, an advisory body representing European civil society at the level of the European Union, selected “Vizinhos à Janela” as the best Portuguese candidate for the Prize, “due to the aggregating strength of its music, it helped to transform a simple neighborhood into a true community of mutual assistance ”.

“Vizinhos à Janela” was announced as one of the 23 laureates in a virtual award ceremony held today by the EESC. Each winner received a prize of 10,000 euros.

The project received the award in the category of “cultural offers, a category that grouped projects” that played a fundamental role in mitigating the effects of the pandemic, in various creative and original ways “.

Last year during the first confinement, a group of neighbors came together to alleviate the loneliness of home life.

Twice a day, at 2 pm and 8 pm, residents of Rua Belo Horizonte “Jardim dos Arcos”, in Oeiras, in the Lisbon district, played music from their balconies and windows for 10 minutes, until the end of July 2020. Four other nearby streets have also joined the initiative.

“These brief outbursts of culture and connection brought some relief and regularity to disturbed routines, and provided strength and joy to the people who lived in the neighborhood,” says the EESC.

Doctors, nurses, policemen and cantoniers visited the street and received a musical tribute in recognition of their work, after which the Oeiras City Council contacted the residents inviting them to take advantage of the spirit of solidarity to collect food for the most needy.

Each building on the street appointed someone to collect supplies from neighbors, who were then handed over to various associations working with vulnerable groups. Local businesses, grocery stores and restaurants also contributed with groceries.

“On average, 700 articles were donated per week, and several residents started volunteering activities, on a permanent basis, together with these associations. At this moment, food aid has already reached six tons ”, highlights the EESC.

“We give so little and we receive so much … This enormous appreciation gives us much more strength to continue in the struggle and help the most needy, and give a real meaning to the phrase:” Help to help “, said the project coordinator Íñigo Hurtado, a Catalan living in Portugal for over 30 years, quoted in the note.

In the delivery of the prizes, the EESC vice-president responsible for Communication, Cillian Lohan, said that “all the projects received are proof of the altruistic commitment of citizens and the local level, which proves that the contribution of civil society in this struggle is huge”

The prizes were awarded to winning entries from 21 countries in the European Union.

The winners were selected from a total of 250 applications submitted by civil society organizations, individuals and private companies. All projects were based on solidarity and presented creative and effective ways to face the often frightening challenges created by the crisis.

Most of the projects targeted vulnerable groups or the people most affected by the crisis, such as the elderly or young people, children, women, minorities, migrants, homeless people, medical staff, workers and employers.

The EESC launched the award in July 2020 under the theme “Civil society against COVID-19”, announcing that it would be an exceptional single edition award, replacing the usual CESE Award for Civil Society.

According to the Committee, the objective was to pay homage to European civil society, which has engaged actively and unselfishly in acts of solidarity since the early days of the pandemic.

DD // SB