Portugal Situation Report Saturday 13th February 2021
Introduction
When the new extension of the State of Emergency was announced by the Prime Minister on Thursday evening, it came as little surprise that the confinement would continue, perhaps through March.
It is clear that these existing measures, the latest border restrictions and the closure of schools has reduced the movement of people and therefore the risk of transmission. In fact, the latest figures show RT [transmissibility ratio] of 0.77. If this is maintained therefore the number of new infections will continue to decrease, thereby placing less pressure on the health service.
In the weekly indicators on the pandemic, the National Statistics Institute (INE) registered on Wednesday a total of 29,511 cases accumulated in the previous seven days, corresponding to 4216 new cases on average per day, “the lowest level since December 31st 2020 “.
Yesterday again, there was good news concerning the daily Covid-19 figures, namely that: deaths were the second lowest since 14th January and third less than 200; a large number of recoveries similar to Wednesday; new cases second lowest since 28th December; number of active cases lowest since 13th January and a 27.5% drop since 31st January; those under surveillance lowest since 15th January; Largest one day decrease in hospitalisations and a decrease by 1639 in 11 days. However, against this there was a slight increase in ICU’s
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Health have both emphasised that, despite the reductions we have seen over the last week or so, the numbers in hospital and ICU remain unacceptably high. The vaccination program has also suffered a setback due to the shortfall of vaccines produced by the manufacturers and this will be factor that the Government has to consider as well in determining when to lift the current restrictions in place.
The situation is also more complicated than previously, as there are a number of different variants of the coronavirus in circulation and these behave in different ways, so the task facing the health services has become far more complex.
António Costa made it clear that we must maintain the current level of confinement safely for the next 15 days and very realistically we will probably have to maintain it even during the month of March. He made an important point by saying that “in the same way that we should be pleased that the measures are producing good results, no-one should take them as sufficient reason to lighten the measures. We must maintain this effort”.
In other words ,as he said last year, we cannot take our foot off the brake at this stage, and undo what has been gained recently. This is indeed a lesson that needs to be learned, and we start today’s report with a very interesting interview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, who admits the Government’s responsibilities in the aggravation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, in January, for the relaxation of measures at Christmas.
The new State of Emergency law comes into effect midnight Sunday 14th/ Monday 15th February and extends for 15 days until 23:59 hrs 1st March 2021. It was very clear from the Council of Ministers Communique that the measures remain the same, except the sale of books and school supplies is now permitted in retail establishments that are already in operation.
The Decree 3-E/2021 was published last night and confirms the only change from the existing State of Emergency is that books and school materials, must remain available to students and citizens in general in supermarkets.
Following news on Thursday that vaccinations of volunteer firefighters had begun, yesterday it was announced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs that in the next three weeks, 10,000 GNR personnel and 10,000 PSP agents will be vaccinated. The vaccinations start today.
Lastly, please be aware of a warning by The Regional Command of the Madeira Public Security Police (PSP Madeira), which is also applicable to mainland Portugal. They have warned the elderly that usually ‘well-dressed’ individuals, who often falsely identify themselves as doctors (médicos in Portuguese) or state officials/civil servants (funcionários do Estado/funcionários públicos in Portuguese) charged with carrying out statistical surveys for the creation of Covid-19 vaccination lists, will attempt to scam the elderly.
These individuals may ask for payments in cash for the vaccine and may falsely diagnose other illnesses, so as to extort more money. If you are approached it is important that a report is made to the GNR or PSP with as many details as possible.
Please remember that the ban on travelling between municipalities remains in place between 8pm Fridays and 5am Mondays’ except where permitted. These measures and others remain the same and are in force under the State of Emergency extension until 1st March 23:59 hrs.
We do not know what measures will be in place beyond this date.
Have a Safe weekend.
Headlines
European Commission warns against “fraudulent vaccines”
The European Commission warned this Friday of the risk of the purchase of “fraudulent vaccines” by the Member States, after reports that the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has offered vaccines to the Czech Republic and three other Member States of the European Union (EU).
“Everyone should be extremely cautious when it comes to vaccines, because it is a matter of injecting an active substance into the human body. Therefore, one must be 100% sure that the channels used to buy vaccines are completely transparent and legitimate, “said the spokesman for the European Commission , Eric Mamer , during the daily press conference of the Community executive.
Mamer thus led a news item published on Friday by the Euractiv news portal, which cited statements by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis that the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had proposed a parallel purchase of vaccines to his government.
In the article, Babis stated that, “while AstraZeneca refused to deliver 80 million doses to the EU “, the Czech Republic and three other EU member states “received recurrent offers of this vaccine” through an “intermediary in Dubai “.
“Believe me, we would definitely have used this opportunity if it had been realistic. But we don’t have that money. And, of course, we have European agreements and we have to respect them,” said Babis according to Euractiv.
Asked about these statements, the Commission spokesman stressed that the process of joint purchase of vaccines made by the community executive serves to guarantee the transparency of vaccines, and said that “whatever is outside this channel”, must be “analysed with great caution “.
We thought there were conditions to facilitate it.” Government admits responsibilities at the peak of the pandemic
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva, admits the Government’s responsibilities in the aggravation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, in January, for the relaxation of measures at Christmas.
In an interview with CNN International’s ‘Connect the World with Becky Anderson’ program, Santos Silva said he believed the strain of the new coronavirus initially detected in the UK was the main factor behind the peak of new contagion cases in Portugal in January.
However, the Foreign Minister acknowledged that the relaxation of measures to combat the pandemic at Christmas may also have contributed to the serious situation of the health crisis in Portugal.
When the journalist asked Santos Silva if the easing of containment measures at Christmas and New Year were behind the peak of contagions and deaths in January, the minister corrected it and recalled that the easing of restrictions only happened during the period Christmas, “when people were able to go and visit the family”.
Santos Silva attributed the worsening of the pandemic situation to the appearance in Portugal of the new strain initially detected in the United Kingdom, which “represents about half of the new cases” in the territory, rather than the relaxation of the measures.
“At the time, we thought there were conditions to make it easier. But in fact, we believe that the new UK variant was the main reason,” added Santos Silva.
Covid-19
On Friday, Portugal registers another 148 deaths and 2,854 new cases of Covid-19, according to the daily balance sheet of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
Today’s data also reveals that more than 7,617 people recovered, bringing the number to 652,739 since the beginning of the pandemic in Portugal.
Taking into account the number of new cases, deaths and recoveries there are now 113,450 active cases down 4,912 from Thursday.
As for hospital admissions the DGS epidemiological bulletin reveals that 5,230 people are admitted to the infirmary, 340 less than the previous day – the biggest drop in the number of hospitalisations since the beginning of the pandemic – and 846 in intensive care , 10 more compared to yesterday .
The biggest reduction in the number of hospitalised patients until today was registered on February 9th, when the bulletin reported that 274 people were hospitalised.
Health authorities have 149,651 contacts under surveillance, down 5,647 from yesterday.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Portugal has accounted for a total of 15,034 deaths and 781,223 cases of infection by the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus,
Health
Covid-19: Marcelo received yesterday the first dose of the vaccine
President of the Republic was vaccinated at the Hospital das Forças Armadas, in Lisbon.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “today received the first dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, at the Hospital das Forças Armadas, in Lisbon”, advances the Presidency of the Republic, in a statement.
The Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces “should receive the second dose even before taking office on March 9th”, adds Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s office.
Minister of Health ensures that vaccination in community pharmacies has always been on the horizon
The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, assured today that the eventual expansion of vaccination against Covid-19 to community pharmacies was “always” among the options of the ‘taskforce’ process, but admitted “unknowns” in relation to the long term. He also said that private laboratories will respond to an increase in testing for Covid-19.
“The issue of vaccination in community pharmacies is a hypothesis that has always been present on the horizons of all member states at a time later in the vaccination process. We still have many unknowns as to what will be the long-term development of this process, but it is of course, an expansion hypothesis that, as in 
other vaccines, we will have to keep in mind and we will consider if possible in terms of storage and the availability of partners ”, he said.
During a visit to the Joint Command for Military Operations, where the support group for the coordinator of the ‘taskforce’ of the National Vaccination Plan against Covid-19, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo, in Oeiras, is installed, the Minister avoided committing herself with a position in relation to vaccines developed in China and Russia and a hypothetical inclusion in the batch contracted at European level.
“It is a dossier that is being conducted by the European Commission and it is up to us, as the Presidency [of the European Union], to support the work of the Commission and monitor the work of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), of our national regulators. Infarmed is in the support group for the Commission for the vaccine process and that’s where we have the technical discussions”, she stressed.
Covid-19. Director of intensive medicine of S. João defends confinement until March 21st.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, José Artur Paiva defended that “the deflation cannot occur before two months of confinement”
The Director of intensive care service at Hospital de São João, Porto, defended today to maintain the confinement until March 21st, a measure accompanied by “robust” testing, suggesting 50 times more tests than the diagnosed cases.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, José Artur Paiva defended that “deflation cannot occur before two months of confinement”, counted from what he calls “real confinement”, that is, since January 21st, when the closure was announced schools to curb the contagion of Covid-19.
“I would say that the deflation must not start before March 21st,” he stressed.
Revealing that he “very much” appreciated the positions of the epidemiologist Manuel Carmo Gomes at the Infarmed meeting on Tuesday, when the professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon criticized the Government in his last participation in this meeting of experts, José Artur Paiva reaffirmed the conviction that measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic must be taken “based on forecasts and not on evidence”.
“We have to be one step ahead of the pandemic. And these criteria cannot be just related to viral transmission,” he said.
The President of the College of Intensive Care Medicine of the Ordem dos Médicos defends the combination of three criteria before deciding: reduction of viral transmission, relief of the overload of the hospital system and robust public health measures.
“We have to be on a sustained basis with less than 2000 cases per day. We have to have Wednesdays and Thursdays [most prevalent days] below 2000 [cases for] weeks in a row and an RT [transmissibility ratio] below 0.8, sustained too. And a test positivity rate of less than 5% “, he described.
Marta Temido says private companies are able to increase testing capacity
The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, said this Friday that private laboratories will respond to an increase in testing for Covid-19, complying with the update of the norm of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) about testing risk contacts.
“We have the private laboratory network, with whom we have already contacted and in which we all need, more than ever, to put ourselves at the disposal of the country in this turning point and we know that there is also the 
capacity to significantly increase, both in tests of classic method, or in rapid antigen tests and availability for new methodologies “, he said.
In statements made on the sidelines of a visit to the Joint Command for Military Operations, where the support group for the task force coordinator of the National Vaccination Plan against Covid-19, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo, in Oeiras, is based, the Minister of Health highlighted the importance of revising the standard in relation to tracking contacts and the impact it can have in combating the pandemic at this stage.
“Among the various updated aspects, we have the answer to what the Ministry of Health had asked to be technically evaluated and that other voices also underlined this need, which is a more widespread use of laboratory tests, whether PCR tests or rapid antigen tests, in tracking contacts”, she said.
Marta Temido also pointed out that, “regardless of the level of risk, the determination is that all people should be referred for testing”, whether they are high or low risk contacts with an infected person.
“Then, [there will also be] another intensification of screening in certain environments at a stage that we are entering – in which we are beginning to see a decrease in incidence:,counteracting what is the lowest demand for an expansionary movement in the offer of detection of cases in the community, “he added.
Failure in deliveries leaves over a million Portuguese without vaccine by the end of March
Initial target cannot be met due to lack of vaccines. Mass inoculation is expected to be concentrated in the three summer months, during which eight million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 may be administered, which will hamper government work.
The failure to deliver vaccines against Covid-19 will delay the vaccination of another million Portuguese, whose inoculation was initially scheduled bythe end of March. The Prime Minister, António Costa, informed this Thursday in a press conference that it was contracted to deliver 4.4 million vaccines against the new coronavirus in the first quarter, but that Portugal will only receive 1,980,000 during that period. As two doses of each of the three vaccines currently authorised are required (BioNTech / Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Oxford), this will only allow one million people to be vaccinated in full.
In the announcement of the vaccination plan, made at the beginning of last December, it was stated that in the first three months of the year it was planned to deliver more than four million doses, which would allow more than two million people to be inoculated in Portugal by the end March.
However, two weeks later, the then coordinator of the task force created by the Government to manage the vaccination plan, Francisco Ramos, admitted in an interview to the PUBLIC that “the doses that we would receive in the first quarter would hardly exceed 2.5 million. And even that, it is an optimistic scenario, which implies that the approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine occurs very quickly. It will most likely be less than that, surely a million and a half, between the Pfizer vaccine and that of the Modern”, said Francisco Ramos.
At the end of January, when it presented the balance of the first month of vaccination, the taskforce estimated to receive 2.2 million doses by the end of the first quarter, which would allow it to vaccinate with both doses 811 thousand people and another 520 thousand with only one. The real number should not reach that much, since, comparing these data with those made available this Thursday by António Costa, 234 thousand fewer doses will arrive in Portugal than was predicted 15 days ago.
Most of the vaccines administered in the first quarter will be from BioNTech / Pfizer (close to 1.3 million), with the arrival of 227 thousand doses of Moderna, according to the balance of the task force made on 28 January. The rest must be from AstraZeneca/Oxford, which was only authorised by the European Medicines Agency on the day following the balance of the first month of vaccination and whose first batch, comprising 43,200 vaccines, arrived last Sunday. As of this Wednesday, according to official data from the Directorate-General for Health, 415,283 vaccines against Covid-19 had been administered, with more than 116,000 people receiving both doses and close to 300,000 only one dose.
Schools
Covid-19. Exams postponed to July and September
The Minister of Education, in an interview with Rádio Renascença’s As Três da Manhã program, announced that the interruption of 15 days of teaching activity in January ‘pushed’ the school calendar backwards. There are two assessment tests that will not be carried out and the exams will be carried out in July and September.
Tiago Brandão Rodrigues announced this Friday that, due to the mandatory 15-day break in January, one of the measures taken by the Government to halt the growth of pandemic numbers in Portugal, the exams will be postponed following the new school calendar.
“As at the end of the year we will have another week of classes, the school calendar has moved forward and we will have a first phase of examinations to take place in July, instead of in June, and a second phase of examinations to take place, in September, instead of happening in July, as it traditionally does, “explained the Minister of Education in an interview with Rádio Renascença’s As Três da Manhã program.
Still in the same program, the government official also announced that the Physical Education and Artistic Expressions tests, scheduled to take place between May 3rd and 11th, for 2nd year students, were cancelled.
“Specifically, the Physical Education and Artistic Expressions tests, these yes, it was decided not to take place at this time, also because they were going to take place in May, they are the ones that take place closer to the moment where we are, and also by sharing of elements and for all the issues that we know “, he affirmed, assuming that it is” too early “to make decisions in relation to other disciplines.
At this moment, according to the calendar of external evaluations for the current academic year, the tests foreseen for the 5th and 8th year students, who between 17th and 26th May must carry out the oral interaction tests of English.
Enforcement
PSP identified and fined participants in an event at the Lapo restaurant, in Lisbon
The restaurant ‘Lapo’ in downtown Lisbon, which refused to close on January 15th, in the middle of a State of Emergency, broadcast this Thursday a direct posting on the social network Facebook, in which a group of people appears without physical distance or mask.
In the images you can see dozens of people with glasses of wine in hand in a festive environment, violating the restrictions to combat the spread of Covid-19.
“My friends, resistance is necessary. Open your business. Freedom is not asked for, it is exercised”, says the owner while listening to Zeca Afonso’s Grândola Vila Morena, inside the restaurant. The people inside are waving, without a mask or physical distance. At least one child is seen in the middle of the group.
The PSP raised 13 cases of administrative offence to participants in this illegal event that took place on Thursday night at the restaurant “Lapo”, in Bairro Alto, in Lisbon, today announced that police force.
In a note, PSP revealed that the participants in the event were identified “for participation to the competent authorities”, at 10 pm on Thursday, when they left the building where the restaurant “‘Lapo’, which was closed” is located.
The 13 administrative infraction notices were issued based on the “violation of the general duty of obligatory collection” by citizens.
International assistance
Covid-19. After German aid, clinical teams from Luxembourg and France arrive in Portugal
First they were German health professionals and now they will be doctors and nurses from Luxembourg and France to help their Portuguese colleagues. Portugal accepted help from these two countries and is preparing to receive clinical teams in two hospitals of the National Health Service.
The Luxembourg team consists of two doctors and two nurses and will support the Intensive Care Service of Hospital do Espírito Santo, in Évora. A doctor and three nursing professionals will also arrive from France to work at Hospital Garcia de Orta, in Almada.
The information was released in the late afternoon of Thursday by the Ministry of Health. “This assistance constitutes an important support for two hospitals that have been experiencing high pressure in terms of Intensive Care. Both teams must arrive in the week of February 15th, with a stay of 15 days. ”