Algarve Situation report Saturday 3th of october

Outbreak amongst Roma Community

There are 60 positive cases in Roma communities, “dispersed throughout the region”, revealed Ana Cristina Guerreiro, regional health delegate on Thursday. At a press conference, held at the Civil Protection headquarters in the Algarve , in Loulé, the delegate said that this is, “perhaps, the situation that most concerns” the regional health authorities today.

Until yesterday, September 30, there were such 60 confirmed cases, “more concentrated in Portimão and Albufeira, but with the knowledge that the outbreaks may soon reach other municipalities”. “For us, it is difficult to separate the two situations because they are communities that live together a lot and we are even aware of other cases in other municipalities”, explained Ana Cristina Guerreiro.

Questioned by the South Information on the number of tests carried out, the delegate said that “surely more than 200 have already been carried out”, with hundreds of people in prophylactic isolation, including adults, young people and children. The origin of these outbreaks, revealed Ana Cristina Guerreiro, is related to “more than one” gathering.

Covid.19: Outbreak at Faro Hospital is related to Beja

The registered confirmed cases of health professionals at Hospital de Faro, are linked to the outbreak of the Beja unit, the President of the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve – (ARS) confirmed today to journalists.

In a press conference on the epidemiological situation in the region, Paulo Morgado said that the outbreak at the Faro hospital is related to an infected professional who works at both hospitals. Altogether there are 7 positive health professionals with 33 in confinement, however, there was no closure of services.

At the regional level, there are 14 infected professionals, belonging to the hospitals of Faro and Portimão and to a private health unit.

The ARS Algarve official explained that at this stage, the health authorities are still able to detect the origin of the outbreaks, “that way we better control their spread”. He added that next week, the Regional Public Health Laboratory of the Algarve, Dr. Laura Ayres, will increase its testing capacity, with the possibility of carrying out more than 1000 tests per day, in line with the national strategy, “only yesterday in the country , more than 25 thousand tests were carried out”, he clarified.

He also informed that the Hospital de Faro has an installed capacity of 60 beds, “if necessary, we activate the Portimão unit”. The Algarve has a total of 15 students and six school staff, which includes teachers, infected with Covid-19, revealed this Thursday, October 1, in a press conference.

Algarve has 15 students and 6 employees infected with Covid-19

According to data provided by Ana Cristina Guerreiro, there are cases “in all levels of education, from day care to secondary”. Regarding day care centres, there is one infected child in the Alameda Kindergarten (Faro), three in the Borboleta Kindergarten (Vila Real de Santo António) and three employees in the Portuguese Red Cross Kindergarten, in Moncarapacho. In Schools EB2, 3 there are infected, in D. Afonso III, in Faro (two students), in D. Martinho Castelo Branco, in Portimão (1 employee), in D. José I, in VRSA (3 students) and in EB2, 3 by Castro Marim (2 students).

Portimão Intensive Care Unit “prepared to deal with 2nd wave of Covid-19”

We are prepared to deal with this second wave of Covid-19 and are equipped for that.” The guarantee is given by the director of the Intensive Care Unit of the Portimão unit of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve, whose Intensive Care Unit is now 20 years old.

“From a practical point of view, we are currently well equipped and clearly prepared» stresses the specialist doctor Alexandre Baptista, who heads a team of 8 doctors, 33 nurses and 12 assistants.

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Portimão hospital, which is exactly this Friday, October 2nd, two decades of operation, currently has 11 beds, of which eight are now occupied by as many patients. The South Information visited the UCI yesterday, to know the conditions of this service that, in recent months, has been around the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In fact, aimed especially at these patients, there is another wing of the ICU almost next to it, “isolated and with completely separate circuits”, which is prepared and equipped, but closed, waiting to be needed again. At the moment, of the 16 patients in the Algarve with Covid-19 who are hospitalized, only 4 are in Intensive Care, but at the Faro hospital.

The COVID Lares (Care homes) Line starts operating this Friday, October 2nd.

To mark the moment, the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, visited the call centre at 2 pm at Estádio do Algarve.

Through the number 700 20 70 70, care homes across the country are provided with support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition to clarifying doubts and providing information, the telephone line will facilitate the contact of homes with local health, civil protection and social security entities, facilitating the signalling of risk situations with the competent authorities.

The COVID Lares Line results from a partnership between Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa and the Algarve Biomedical Center, as part of the integrated program of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security to support care homes. This is a project to allow permanent monitoring of the institutions, monitoring and responding to their needs.

Water reserves

The water reserves in the Algarve are sufficient to ensure public supply

The water reserves in the Algarve are sufficient to ensure public supply and although the levels of the dams are low, there are no restrictions on consumption, a source from Águas do Algarve told Lusa.

The absence of rain has contributed to accentuate the drought, especially in the eastern (eastern) Algarve, however, the existing water reserves allow to give the “guarantee” that there will be no restrictions on supply, said the spokesperson of the company that manages the multi-municipal public water supply system in the Algarve.

“The data we have regarding the water needs to supply the population of the Algarve, which is in the order of 72 million cubic meters, and what the current reserves are, plus underground abstractions, allows us to guarantee that for now, there is no forecast of any type of constraint to supply, either in quantity or in quality”, assured Teresa Fernandes.

That official acknowledged, however, that “the water reserves available this year in the Algarve region are below what would be desirable for this time of year”.

Faro and GNR unite to guarantee quality of life for the elderly

The monitoring and improvement of the quality of life of the elderly in Faro will now be guaranteed by a team that will bring together technicians from the Faro Council and elements from the GNR.

The local authority of Faro and the GNR signed yesterday, October 1, the International Day of the Elderly, the protocol for the formalization of the GPSS Program in Faro – Proximity Group for the Promotion of Social Rights and Security, «with a view to monitoring and promoting the improvement of quality of life of the elderly, in particular those who are most isolated or in the most vulnerable situation”.

This is a «pioneer decentralized intervention program in Portugal», which involves the Municipality’s Elderly Support Office and the GNR Faro Territorial Command (CT) Elderly Support Team, which «intends to carry out an intervention and assistance of excellence, meeting the elderly identified by GNR, through the survey carried out within the scope of the “Senior Censuses” operation », according to the Chamber

The objective is that «all the elderly can be informed about their social rights and the promotion of safety measures, promoting differentiated service, door to door, in which each case is analyzed and monitored, with the ultimate goal of improving quality of life of the identified elderly. After an assessment of the situation of the citizen, there will be an appropriate intervention with specific responses taking into account the needs detected.“

Situation Report Algarve – Wednesday 30th of September

Covid-19: There are 3 outbreaks in nursing homes in the Algarve

The Director-General of Health revealed today that there are currently 51 active outbreaks in nursing homes, the largest number in the region of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley.

“In residential structures for the elderly there are 51 active outbreaks at this moment,” said Graça Freitas, at the press conference to update information on infection with the new coronavirus in Portugal.

According to the director-general of Health, 10 outbreaks are active in the North, two in the Center, 33 in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region, three in the Alentejo and three in the Algarve – Loulé (Quarteira), Olhão and Tavira.

Algarvian nurses deliver petition with 4600 signatures to the Assembly of the Republic

The SEP’s Regional Directorate of Faro says in a statement it will deliver on Wednesday 30^th September at 10 am to the Assembly of the Republic, a petition with more than 4600 signatures, demanding that the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve – CHUA and the Regional Health Administration of the Algarve – ARS, “comply with the commitments they have assumed”, in the sense that 500 nurses with 10 and 20 years of work, earn the same as a newly graduated nurse, because they are not counted with the length of service.

Union members make it known that CHUA does not progress nurses with Individual Employment Contract and ARS Algarve does not progress those who had a salary adjustment for the first remuneration position of the new career. But both institutions, according to the SEP, signed these commitments in 2019.

The same communiqué from the Portuguese Nurses Union advances that this non-compliance determined a clarification campaign with the population and political leaders, as well as the collection of signatures for the public petition “Support the Nurses of the Algarve”. Copies of the more than 4600 signatures of thousands of solidary citizens with the nurses, were handed over to the CHUA administration, will be sent to ARS Algarve, Prime Minister, and Minister of Health and will be delivered to the Assembly of the Republic, underlines the same document.

In a meeting with deputies elected by the Algarve from the PS, PSD, BE and the deputy of the European parliament of the PCP, it was assumed that the written commitments are to be fulfilled, but the SEP says that, within the scope of other petitions delivered by the union, precisely around this problem, the PS and PSD have not yet presented any proposals for draft law decrees to resolve them.

In the same publication, he recalls that nurses continue to be at the forefront and at risk. “There is a lack of material for clinical consumption in some Health Centres in the region and recent reports have come from professionals and users to buy some material to carry out treatments”, they refer.

Ryanair makes a new donation of 250 thousand euros for the renaturalization of the Monchique Mountains

The airline Ryanair, made for the second consecutive year a donation of 250 thousand euros for the renaturalization of the Serra de Monchique as part of its initiative to offset carbon emissions, thus adding 500 thousand euros in contributions to the project.

This new budget, which, like last year, was obtained through donations from passengers, will finance the planting of over 75 thousand trees destroyed by the 2018 fires in this Algarve area. In the first year of the project, 62 thousand indigenous trees were planted and around 90 owners were supported. It is expected that in the future the set of trees planted may be responsible for the sequestration of 1000 tons of carbon per year.

Ryanair’s Sustainability Director, Thomas Fowler, entrusted another check for 250,000 euros to the project partners – Algarve Tourism Region, Territory and Environment Planning Study Group (GEOTA), Nature and Forest Conservation Institute and Monchique City Council.

Ryanair is the greenest airline in Europe, operating the youngest fleet with the highest occupancy rates and the most efficient fuel consumption per passenger. Likewise, Ryanair has industry-leading CO2 emissions per passenger-km of just 66 grams, up to 50% lower than the other four major European airlines.

Turismo do Algarve went by bicycle, donkey and buggy to honour health professionals

This September 27, World Tourism Day, was celebrated differently by the Algarve Tourism Region. It is that those responsible for the RTA decided to promote, in Silves, activities that brought together the health officials of the region in an outdoor program that led them to ride on the road on an electric bicycle or to ride on a buggy or donkey, as a way to thank them provision in the prevention and control of the pandemic in the Algarve.

At Quinta de Santo Estêvão, on the outskirts of Silves, the moment reflected the theme defined by the United Nations for the World Tourism Day in 2020 (Tourism and Rural Development), through which the sector’s capacity to create opportunities outside the great cities and the need to preserve cultural and natural heritage worldwide, in the face of the current public health crisis.

Situation report Algarve 26th of September

Covid 19 situation

There are 450 active cases of Covid-19 in the Algarve, according to data from the Regional Health Authority, which have just been released by the District Civil Protection Commission.

This total of active cases results from the increase in the number of new infections confirmed in the region in the last 24 hours (plus 48, according to the Regional Health Authority), which was not offset by the increase in cases of recovered patients (plus 22).

There are a total of 11 people in hospital including four in ICU. Of the 1510 confirmed cases to date 1039 have recovered – 68.8%

Covid.19: Twelve employees of the ACASO home in Olhão under active surveillance

Three positive cases of covid.19 were recorded last weekend at the ACASO nursing home in Olhão. The cases are linked to two employees and an 88-year-old patient. All the other 32 elderly people at the institution were negative.

João Calão, Director of Services at ACASO, confirmed that the elderly woman is hospitalized, “she is asymptomatic and stable and there has been no increase in cases”. Under active surveillance there are 12 employees out of a total of 25.

The official explained that the first cases were registered following a testing operation at home, by the Public Health authorities, who hope to carry out new tests this weekend.

The infected workers are also stable, “one is without symptoms and the other with mild symptoms, which looks more like a cold”. João Calão explained that the health entities, understood to test the first employee who was asymptomatic, for having other relatives with covid: “the entities were relentless, on Saturday the first case was confirmed, and on Sunday, we already knew the results of all tests to users and employees and the measures to be taken, namely the internment of the user and the isolation of the employees”, he stressed.

Southern Branch of Doctors’ Union criticizes ARS Algarve for hiring doctors “without specific training”

According to the union, the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve published, on the 4th of September, a notice for the recruitment of 9 non-specialist doctors for the performance of functions in the field of Public Health, whose employment contract will have a duration of 4 months and a monthly remuneration of 1859 euros gross (ie, approximately 1200 euros net).

For the union, “this is proof of a deliberate governmental intention to create a class of doctors without access to specialized training and thus precarious medical work, has serious repercussions in terms of the quality of care provided”. The same union gave as an example what happened at Hospital Garcia de Orta, which opened a tender for the hiring of doctors without specialization in specific services such as Intensive Care, Anesthesiology or Orthopaedics, for which they do not have skills, he said.

In the union’s position, this type of hiring corresponds to a complete “subversion of the principles of the medical profession”, that is, the doctor is prohibited from exercising in an area for which he has no competences, and respect for the citizens who use the Service. National Health.

COVID-19: Monchique statues wear masks to raise awareness

Municipality of Monchique puts masks on the village’s statues to sensitize the population and tourists to the protection measures against the new Coronavirus.

At the moment when the spread of the disease by the new coronavirus registers significant numbers in our country, and even without active cases in the municipality of Monchique at this moment, the municipality decided to promote this action through its sculptural ensemble spread a little throughout this mountain village. It is important to reach everyone with the message that it is necessary to act to stop the new coronavirus and that this path goes mainly through pedagogy and by increasing the collective awareness that everyone must protect themselves and adopt the protection measures already spread by the municipality of Monchique and by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

For Rui André, Mayor of Monchique, “the population of Monchique has been exemplary, as well as the institutions and companies that have adopted protective measures in their establishments / spaces that have contributed decisively to combat the spread of this disease in our country.