Algarve Situation Report Tuesday 21st July
Covid-19 statistics
There were no new cases in the Algarve registered since Sunday
The Algarve has 750 cases to date, there are no new infections since yesterday and the number of deaths remains at 15.
In the weekly count by municipality, the Directorate-General for Health records: (accumulated cases):
Albufeira 135 , (2 deaths); Faro – 118; Loulé – 102 , (5 deaths); Portimão – 101 (3 deaths); Lagos – 101; Tavira – 35; Silves – 29; Olhão – 28; Vila Real de Stº António – 17 , ( 2 deaths ); Monchique – 15; Lagoa – 13 , (2 deaths); São Brás de Alportel – 7 , (1 death); Aljezur – 7; Vila do Bispo – 4 and Castro Marim – 4
Algarve Hotel and Tourism School provides over a hundred meals to families in need in Faro
More than 100 prepared meals, 35 servings of cakes and some leftover cooked food are being delivered weekly to the Faro centre of Refood by the School of Hospitality and Tourism of the Algarve (EHTA).
Food is prepared by students in the Management and Kitchen Production class during the face-to-face practical classes that are taking place this July.
In a statement, the School of Hospitality says that the products it has in stock and that need to be made are added to the food that students use in the moments of learning and that then need to be disposed of.
Pastry classes also contribute to these donations with many dozens of doses of desserts, the result of the work developed in the practical sessions.
“We insist on promoting this partnership whenever possible since we have products in stock and we know that there are those who need them. It is the students who do it. Last week we made fish and I already know that for the week it will be rabbit”, says Chef Luis Caboz, trainer at EHTA.
Algarve
Covid.19: Person arrested in Faro for not wearing a mask
A 36-year-old man complained to the Faro Public Security Police (PSP), for excessive noise in the area where he lives, on Thursday night, but for not wearing a mask, he may now be subject to a fine.
The individual went to the PSP police station, without a mask or visor, and ended up “detained for injuries and disobedience”, due to the refusal to use protection. The same source adds that the agents warned the man that he had no protection and he refused to comply.
National Maritime Authority rescues six people off Olhão
On the 16th of July, the National Maritime Authority rescued six people who were on board of a recreational vessel, after it had turned in the bar between the island of Armona and the island of Culatra, in Olhão, due to the low depth and the southeast swell that was felt in the place.
The local Command of the Maritime Police of Olhão received, at 7:20 pm, an alert through the Coordination Center for Maritime Search and Rescue of Lisbon (MRCC-Lisbon), reporting the existence of six people who would be adrift after the vessel where they continued to have upset.
The Olhão Lifeboat Station was engaged, which headed for the site using a semi-rigid vessel and with a team from INEM and the Portuguese Red Cross on board, and a vessel from the Olhão Maritime Police was also activated.
The six crew members, all Portuguese, were collected from the water on board the Maritime Police vessel, in good health, and subsequently transported ashore. The semi-rigid lifeguard station towed the injured vessel. The National Maritime Authority reinforces the importance of, before going out to sea, always check the weather forecast and have knowledge of the navigation areas, especially near the port bars.
Missing man was found dead at the bottom of ravine in Aljezur
A man who had been missing for four days was found dead this Saturday, July 18th, at the bottom of a ravine in Aljezur. The location was in the area of Martins Estevens, about three kilometres from his home”. The victim is 62-year-old Armenio Costa, who “must have been involved in a car accident.”
The family members “alerted the GNR and began to search with the help of friends, firefighters and forest sappers”. Thes man lived in the Carrascalinho area and was seen, for the last time, “in a cafe, on Wednesday afternoon, in Aljezur. It was probably when he was going home that he suffered the accident”.
Situation Report Sunday 19th of July
Covid-19 Statistics
On Saturday18th July the Algarve had 16 new cases of Covid-19, compared to Friday according to the epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). The total number of accumulated cases since the beginning of the pandemic has risen to 780.
José Apolinário highlights the importance of a Government figure in the Algarve
Secretary of State José Apolinário, appointed coordinator of the response to covid-19 in the Algarve, considers it important to have a link between the Government and the region, recognizing the usefulness of improving coordination between public bodies.
“I have tried to be an interlocutor between the Government’s position in the region and to transmit to my colleagues in the Government the signals and alerts that the situation in the region justifies”, said the Secretary of State for Fisheries, questioned by the Lusa agency.
His position, he said, is based on the “idea-force” of Júlio Almeida Carrapato, civil governor of Faro between 1975 and 1980, who argued that in the region it was necessary to have an institutional figure “who would serve as a spokesman for the Government” but also “spokesperson for the region’s services in the central government”. “I have tried to keep that register, with a space for intervention by mayors and district structures”, he said.
Some mayors defend the maintenance of a figure that coordinates the deconcentrated administration of the State in each region even after the end of the pandemic, with the president of the Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL), António Pina, defending the “recovery of the figure of civil governor and the effective bet on regionalization”.
For José Apolinário, in the Algarve there is “a feeling of decentralization” that at the moment involves “reinforcing the role of local authorities”. His role as coordinator in the pandemic, he reiterated, has been “a facilitator in the relationship between the different areas of central administration in the region, with the municipalities and the institutions”.
Without specifically answering the question of whether or not to maintain the figure of coordinator in a post-pandemic period and even with more powers, the Secretary of State said that he has sought to “dignify and respect the mandate” entrusted to him and that “the Government it will take stock and assess how this situation will arise”.
Covid-19: Resumption of the river connection from Vila Real de Santo António to Spain
The fluvial route along the Guadiana River between Vila Real de Santo António and the city of Ayamonte (Spain) has already been re-established, after having been interrupted in March, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the Portuguese authority announced today.
The reopening of the Portuguese-Spanish river crossing between the Algarve and the autonomous region of Andalusia thus joins the road connection re-established on July 1, between Castro Marim and Ayamonte, through the Guadiana International Bridge, which had also been closed in March , except for the transportation of goods and cross-border workers.
“The river career between Vila Real de Santo António and Ayamonte has already been resumed, with the international maritime connection between the two border cities being restored,” announced the Vila Real de Santo António Chamber in a statement.
Confirmed cases in Loulé and Faro municipalities
After being detected last Wednesday, some cases of Covid-19, among workers of a construction site, in the municipality of Loulé in Quinta da Umbria, the Mayor of Loulé, informed this morning on Facebook that the ABC – Algarve Biomedical Center, conducted tests on all employees of nursing homes in Tôr, Salir and Querença. According to Vítor Aleixo, the results of the 108 employees were all negative.
The municipality’s source confirmed that some cases of Covid.19 were recorded, not giving the exact number, referring that the testing operation for the professionals of the homes was another preventive measure, to prevent possible contagions in the elderly population.
As for infected workers, the same source said that they are being treated and monitored by health entities, together with the authority, Civil Protection, Social Security and GNR. Earlier this week, authorities confirmed an additional 18 cases, linked to construction workers in the municipality of Faro.
According to Rogério Bacalhau, workers are in quarantine to recover, under the responsibility of the health authorities, Civil Protection, Security Forces and the Portuguese Red Cross, which has provided meals and other logistical support. It should be noted that of the 18 infected persons of Brazilian nationality, none are hospitalized. Of the total group, there are 4 who did not report positive, but are under surveillance, said the mayor.
Algarve Saturday 18th of July
Covid-19 Algarve has 13 active outbreaks
Portugal currently accounts for a total of 206 active outbreaks in Covid-19, Health Minister Marta Temido announced today at the regular press conference on the evolution of the pandemic in the country. Of these, 13 are in the Algarve and 5 are in the Alentejo.
“It should be noted that we have 41 active outbreaks in the North, 13 in the Center, 134 in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, five in the Alentejo and 13 in the Algarve. This is, in general, the characterization of the country’s epidemiological situation”, affirmed the minister, in the presentation of the daily bulletin of the health authorities, in a sum that makes a total of 206 active outbreaks.
From 10th to the 14th of July the overall RT is 0.96, considering it “constant”, but the “Download a little bit”. At regional level, the distribution of RT is as follows: 1.04 in the North, 0.94 in the Center, 0.94 in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region, 0.89 in the Alentejo region and 1.17 in the region from the Algarve.
The District Civil Protection Commission of Faro, today revealed in a statement, based on data provided by the Health Authority, that there are 232 active cases in the Algarve. So far, 763 infected people have been registered, plus 7 in the last 24 hours with 514 recovered, equivalent to 67.4%.
There are 11 hospitalized patients, with 3 hospitalizations in the Intensive Care Units. The same source reports 17 deaths in the region. There are 708 people under active surveillance. 83 patients were discharged from hospital.
Technical problems concerning 30 ventilators purchased by AMAL Algarve
The 30 hospital ventilators acquired by the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve and offered to the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA) “have technical problems” that prevent them from functioning, admitted today the president of the association of Algarve municipalities.
“There are some situations that have been reported to us by the hospital administration that in the tests carried out and that take the machine [fan] to the limit, there is one or another situation that does not accompany this test,” António Pina, president of AMAL, told Lusa. The problem with the functioning of the devices in the hospitals of Portimão and Faro, acquired from a Chinese company, was raised today by the newspaper Correio da Manhã.
António Pina indicated that he is waiting for the final report about the ventilators, noting that there were “other problems with equipment that were not 100%, but that were resolved with the company’s technicians through remote reprogramming”.
“Let’s wait, because it could be resolved with a remote reprogramming with the company in China”, he stressed. The president of AMAL, the entity that aggregates the 16 municipalities in the Algarve, believes that “until the end of next week there may be an answer, a final report, even because of the anxiety that is generated with this issue”.
The mayor of Olhão also said he had been “informally alerted to the problem with the functioning of the devices by the administration of CHUA”, an entity that sends the analysis to the equipment for certification. For his part, the Secretary of State for Fisheries and coordinator of the response to covid-19 in the Algarve, José Apolinário, told Lusa that he hoped that “together with the supplier, a way will be found to resolve the situation”.