Algarve Situation Report 15th May 2020 – from our colleague reporting on the Algarve.
Cancellation of music festivals and other events
Summer music festivals and other events scheduled until September 30 will not be held in the Algarve.
In line with what had already been defined in the Council of Ministers on May 7, AMAL decided, at the Council meeting, that all music festivals and other events that may mean crowds of people will be postponed to 2021.
Considering that there is a moment of uncertainty in the context of the pandemic of COVID-19, the local authorities in the Algarve continue to assume as priorities to prevent the disease, contain the pandemic and save lives.
Thus, Festivals such as Seafood (Olhão), Sardinha (Portimão), MED (Loulé), FATACIL (Lagoa), Medieval Days (Castro Marim), Feira da Serra (São Brás de Alportel) or Mediterranean Diet (Tavira), the Hunting and Fishing Fair (Albufeira), the Ham Festival (Monchique), the Medieval Fair (Silves) among others, will only take place next year.
The municipalities of the Algarve have also decided not to hold other smaller events that involve large concentrations of people.
The mayors fear that the non-realization of larger events may increase the demand for other events, which may imply an outflow of the usual.
However, this decision may not be applied to all events, and will be taken, on a case-by-case basis, and by each of the municipalities, considering the evaluation of the conditions for its realization in view of the evolution of the pandemic and their physical conditions.
Social and Economic Emergency Plan for the Algarve
The District Coordinating Committee of Bloco de Esquerda (BE) has produced a Social and Economic Emergency Plan for the Algarve for the years 2020/21 that will be presented online, tomorrow, May 15th.
The document contemplates several proposals, covering different areas, such as support to people and companies, employment, housing, health, education, housing, mobility, environment, agriculture, fisheries, water, university and media.
This Plan will be the subject of legislative initiatives to be delivered soon to the Assembly of the Republic by the Parliamentary Group of the Left Block.
“COVID-19 is the first pandemic of the globalization era and has reached, very quickly, all continents and no country has been able to apply instruments to effectively tackle it, preventing serious social and economic consequences for a period over time, as long as there is no vaccine or treatment for the new coronavirus. This pandemic exposed the weaknesses of the country’s economy and, in particular, the Algarve, which depends almost exclusively on tourism”, justifies the Bloco de Esquerda, in a note sent to the Barlavento editorial staff.
“The Algarve really appears as the most vulnerable region in the country and if extraordinary measures are not taken in the short and medium term, the impacts of the crisis will prove to be catastrophic”.
In this way, the District Secretariat of BE Algarve will present the Plan, Friday, May 15, at 5 pm.
Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António will distribute, for free, a reusable mask for each citizen
Throughout the month of May, the Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António will distribute, for free, a reusable mask for each citizen, through the “solidarity mask” project.
With this measure, the municipality intends, “to contribute to the security of all Vila Realians and to stop the spread of Covid-19, namely during the phases of dis-confinement that follow”, points out the Municipality’s note.
The mask can be lifted by presenting the Identity Card or Citizen Card, with collection points available in the three parishes in the municipality.
According to the Mayor of Vila Real de Stº António, “There are 20 thousand masks, one for each citizen, which, we believe, will contribute to the safety of everyone and help us to overcome the challenges that follow”.
Thursday 14th May
DGS Report
The number of Covid-19 cases increased to 351 in the Algarve, one more than Tuesday.
Despite this new case in the Algarve, when analysing the DGS municipal data, there is no change in the number of infected in the municipality. As for the number of deaths in the region, they remain at 14.
Minister Ana Godinho praises ABC’s extraordinary work
The Algarve Biomedical Center (ABC) has, until yesterday, performed 14 thousand tests on employees and home users, as well as on day care workers, in the Algarve region, in the Baixo Alentejo and Alentejo Litoral, announced today Nuno Marques, director of ABC .
This official was speaking during the visit that Ana Mendes Godinho, Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, made this afternoon to the Quinta dos Pardais Children’s Center, in Albufeira, owned by the local Santa Casa da Misericórdia, one of the day care centers that will open in next the 18th.
Nuno Marques added that, in the homes of the elderly in the Algarve and in all the structures associated with them, 8152 tests have been carried out so far. “We did, therefore, many more than the 6000 we planned to do so.
In the 105 institutions tested (users and employees), “we only had one case of a positive home [that of Misericórdia de Boliqueime], but that was identified in a timely manner, which allowed for its adequate isolation”.
All other tests in the remaining Algarve institutions for the elderly were negative. “I never liked the term” negative “so much,” confessed the ABC director.
Loulé Library
The Municipal Library Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, in Loulé, will open its doors to the public again from next Tuesday, May 19, after having closed on March 10 as a preventive measure to contain the spread of COVID -19, within the scope of the Municipal Contingency Plan, and having operated for a month on a take-away basis, with the loan of books at the door of the building.
In this reopening, the services will be conditioned and all the guidelines of the Directorate-General for Health will be followed in terms of health security, hygiene of space and documentary material, guarantee of social distance between users, among other measures.
In the last two weeks of May, the Library will operate at an adapted time, at its headquarters and in each of its centers, but with rules common to all spaces, namely the non-availability of periodicals for reading, guidance by technicians in accessing spaces, in order to guarantee physical distance (2 meters) or access to shelves to be carried out exclusively by Library technicians.
Union of Journalists wants explanations from the Government about incident with Lusa team at the Castro Marim border
The Union of Journalists (SJ) has asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to explain why a reporting team from the Lusa agency, duly accredited, was prevented from crossing the border into Spain in Ayamonte, Castro Marim, on Thursday 8th May.
“As the SJ learned, the Lusa team was informed that the passage of journalists is not foreseen in the cooperation agreement between Portugal and Spain in force for the pandemic period. The union was told that Portuguese journalists cannot enter Spain, just as Spanish journalists cannot enter Portugal” said a union source.
In a statement, the SJ says that “it does not understand the arguments used” and recalls that “many other professionals from both countries are allowed to cross the common border”, considering “that such a decision represents an attack on press freedom”.
In “defence of the right to information”, the SJ claims to have reported the incident to the Federación de Asociaciones de Periodistas de España (FAPE) and the European Federation of Journalists, “in order to pressure the governments of Portugal and Spain to specify, in the renewal of the cross-border agreement, which ends on the 17th, the exemption of journalists from restrictions on circulation”.