Algarve Situation Report Wednesday November 4th 2020

Ualg researchers study the impact of quarantine on the mental health of the Portuguese during the Covid-19

Women and young people were twice as likely to be depressed and anxious during imposed confinement to stop the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, preliminary data from a study revealed yesterday, by Ualg – University of the Algarve.

Speaking to Lusa, the person responsible for the study in Portugal said that depressive symptoms are more easily found in “women and people dissatisfied with their health and economic income” and who referred to being “unspiritual”, to which young people are added, in the case of anxiety.

“There is a prevalence of depressive symptoms and generalized anxiety more evident in women, twice as much as in men, and the younger they are, the more it is evident, being twice as likely as the rest of the population”, revealed Helena José.

The international study on the impact of confinement on mental health, coordinated in Portugal by researchers from the University of Algarve, was based on surveys conducted in May with a total of 918 people, between 15 and 80 years old, residing in mainland Portugal and Islands.

The data seems to reveal that age and marriage are “protective factors”, with the possibility that life experience can “create some resilience” to adversity, as well as a life together, the researcher said.

“The younger they are, the more anxious they are, with women accumulating: they are more depressed and more anxious”, he stressed.

One piece of data that seems to have surprised the researchers was an expected increase in alcohol consumption, still “below what was expected,” added Helena José.

With the final results of this first sampling to be known in three weeks, there are still some “relationships and lessons” that the team will seek to remove from the correlation between the data collected.

The São Brás de Alportel Municipal Committee of the Portuguese Communist Party considers that the measures imposed by the Government “are disproportionate”.

At issue is the approval on the 30th of October, of the resolution of the Council of Ministers that renewed the calamity situation in the entire continental national territory, and extended the special measures that had been adopted to other municipalities, with some additional changes being introduced.

The special measures cover new municipalities taking into account the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants, in which the municipality of São Brás de Alportel was included in the list of 121 “high risk of contagion”. The PCP underlines in a statement that this epidemic outbreak poses health, economic and social problems “that are not resolved by limiting rights and creating climates of fear”.

In the set of measures to be applied, it was highlighted, for example, the penalty of the marketers with the decision to close fairs and markets, keeping on the other hand the large areas in activity, “which would only contribute to aggravate not only the difficulties, the feeling of despair within this sector”, he notes.

With the Government apparently partially backing away, now leaving the decision in the hands of the local authorities, the party consider that “there will be no reason” for this sector to be penalized in São Brás de Alportel, “always guaranteeing compliance with the DGS indications”.

79-year-old foreign national is the first fatal victim of Covid-19 in Olhão

A 79-year-old foreign national, residing in Olhão, is the most recent victim of Covid-19 in the Algarve, being the first recorded death in this municipality, according to a regional Health Authority source.

According to this source, the man, who had other “associated morbidities”, was admitted to the Portimão Hospital.

The most recent data from the Regional Health Authority, indicate that there are 1006 active cases in the region, and the municipality of São Brás de Alportel was the one that registered, this Saturday, the biggest increase in the number of cases (17).

The new cases detected in the municipality of São Brás de Alportel are related to the outbreak in the Lar da Santa Casa da Misericórdia, which, according to the municipality, is already responsible for 28 infections.

The number of people hospitalized has decreased. There are now 29 people in hospitals in the region, three of them in intensive care units. There are no ventilated patients.