Algarve Situation Report Saturday 1st May 2021
Aljezur maintains highest incidence in the Algarve, Portimão below Lagos and VRSA
Aljezur, with 465 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, in 14 days, remains, for the second consecutive week, the Algarve municipality with the highest incidence of Covid-19, according to data released this Friday, April 30, by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
Even so, Aljezur has a lower incidence than a week ago, when it had 501 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants.
These numbers were so high that they justified the decision taken yesterday in the Council of Ministers to make the Costa Vicentina municipality retreat in the process of deflation, returning to the phase of 5 April. The restaurants will only be able to operate with a terrace – and 4 people – until 10:30 pm during the week and 1:00 pm at the weekend.
Interestingly, according to DGS data, referring to the period between 14 and 27 April, Portimão, with 159 cases / 100 thousand inhabitants, had a lower incidence than Lagos (171), or Vila Real de Santo António (181), both municipalities that from tomorrow follow the rest of the country entering the fourth and final phase of deflation.
Portimão, on the other hand, was forced to maintain itself, at least another week, in the previous phase to which it had retreated fifteen days ago (closed terraces, sales to the wicket/entrance). Mayor Isilda Gomes has already announced that today, at the end of the afternoon, she will have an emergency meeting with Prime Minister António Costa to talk about this matter.
Returning to the 14-day cumulative incidence data, by municipality, Alcoutim and São Brás de Alportel are the only municipalities in the Algarve that have zero incidence, since they have not registered any new case of Covid-19 for at least three weeks.
The Mayor of Portimão, Isilda Gomes, will meet today with urgency with the Prime Minister
Portimão, Faro, April 30, 2021 (Lusa) – The Mayor of Portimão, Isilda Gomes, will meet today with urgency with the Prime Minister following the Government’s decision to keep the municipality in the same phase of the deflationary process it was announced today.
In a statement, the municipality indicated that the hearing requested “as a matter of urgency” from the prime minister, is scheduled for 18:00, at the São Bento Palace, in Lisbon.
The meeting was requested by Isilda Gomes (PS) “due to the decisions taken on Thursday in the Council of Ministers, which prevent Portimão from resuming the process of deflation”.
Isilda Gomes, cited in the note from the municipality of the district of Faro, expressed “great disappointment by the decision taken [by the Government], felt, once again, as a huge injustice”.
Portimão, which retreated to the second phase of the deflation 15 days ago, is one of eight municipalities out of 278 in mainland Portugal that does not advance on Saturday to the fourth and last phase of the deflation plan defined by the Government with the country’s entry into a situation of calamity, replacing the state of emergency.
Also prevented from proceeding to the fourth phase are Miranda do Douro, Paredes and Valongo, which remain at the level they are at, and Aljezur, Resende, Carregal do Sal, who retreated to different stages, but who are also retained, although may be “for a very short time”, because the Government has decided to carry out a weekly assessment.
According to data released by the municipality, Portimão counted on Thursday 39 active cases of infections by covid-19 in the municipality, a number below the limit of 67 cases, based on 120 per 100 thousand inhabitants.
In the accumulated period of 14 days used by the Government to define the rules of the deflation, there was a reduction of 200 cases in Portimão, accounting for an accumulated of 70 cases on Thursday, but only 39 of which were active.
The evaluation criteria used by the Government to define the rules of lack of definition have been criticized by the mayors, considering that they do not reflect the reality of cases of covid-19, unfairly penalizing the populations.