“Of the confirmed cases, there are two people aged 39 and 27 admitted to CHUA [Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Algarve], in Faro. When covid patients are admitted, it is because their clinical condition is worrying”, said Ana Cristina Guerreiro.

At a press conference, the regional health delegate said she hoped “that responsibilities and their legal consequences could be attributed” to the organizers of the event, which took place on June 7 at the Odiáxere sports club.

“Having a party, we talk about more than 100 people, with such a dimension, in a pandemic moment, when the need for social distance, the use of masks has been so publicized (…), I hope so, that responsibilities are assigned ”, she stressed.

So far, health authorities have conducted more than 100 tests, identifying 16 cases of covid-19 infection related to the party, two of which refer to children aged 12 and 7 who were not at the event but were infected by family members.

There are also five people waiting for results and at least 10 people waiting to take the test, added the official, stressing that the majority of people involved are “people of working age who work in multiple locations”.

Admitting that “it is difficult to obtain evidence and individual accountability”, Ana Cristina Guerreiro said, however, that she would like the act to “have some consequence”, because the one who loses is “Algarve and the country”.

The president of ARS / Algarve said that some people related to the party are already spontaneously going to health services to be tested, and took the opportunity to appeal to people not to participate in these types of events.

“We will not blame the people who were at the party, but whoever organized the party, I think so. Then, there must be consequences ”, reinforced Paulo Morgado, remembering that this type of events can bring up dozens of cases.

According to that person, everyone “must be vigilant”, because this type of acts “has consequences” in people’s lives and jobs, with the whole community “harmed by a set of irresponsible acts that violate what is the law of the country” .

Ana Cristina Guerreiro also said that, of this group, there are people “in prophylactic isolation with police reinforcement”, and some of those infected “are people from the same family”, and there are also positive cases among coworkers.

According to today’s bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health, the municipality of Lagos registers five cases of infection, the majority of which have not yet been confirmed and related to the event have yet to be counted.

The authorities will now proceed with the investigations to try to identify the maximum possible number of people involved in the party – or their direct circles – in order to be able to break possible transmission chains.