Azores Situation Report Wednesday 5th May 2021
The outermost regions (ORs) of the European Union
The outermost regions (ORs) of the European Union (EU) have proposed to the Commission the “acceleration” of vaccination against Covid-19 in their territories, after the appeal made by its President, the Azorean José Manuel Bolieiro.
“In this joint declaration, approved by all the outermost regions, we signalled a proposal for a new EU approach to the ORs, an appeal to the European Commission and the European Council to keep an eye on health developments in 
the ORs and even to propose accelerating vaccination strategies”, said the president of the Conference of Presidents of the ORs, José Manuel Bolieiro, who also heads the Regional Government of the Azores.
He was speaking to journalists in Ponta Delgada, after having chaired, by videoconference, the interim meeting of the presidents of the ORs.
The EU includes nine ORs: French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and São Martinho (France), Azores and Madeira (Portugal) and the Canary Islands (Spain).
The leader of the Conference of Presidents of the ORs confirmed that he had sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Health and Food Security on this matter, taking into account the specific characteristics of these regions and their health systems in combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said that, in this way, “the mission of defending the populations” of the ORs is being carried out with zeal and determination, with the intention of “insisting on making the Member States see, but also on their own EU, the importance of finding an accelerated vaccination solution for the ORs”.
In the final declaration of the meeting, it is easy to see that the “vulnerability of the ORs, recognized in article 349 of the European Treaty, was exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic, compromising the socio-economic development of these regions”.
“This health crisis has had serious consequences for the economic sectors, namely the sectors of tourism, events and culture, which are particularly fragile and exposed to uncertainties regarding the future of their activities. The recovery is made more difficult by the structural constraints of their markets “.
In the document, the Conference of Presidents of the ORs “invites the Council to ask the European Commission to prepare a new strategy for the benefit of the ORs, taking full account of the new situation resulting from the pandemic and the challenges that remain for these regions”.
Those responsible for these territories also recall the “specific characteristics of the ORs, spaces that are particularly sensitive to international events in their respective geographical areas: epidemic outbreaks in neighbouring countries, restrictions on the movement of people and goods, supply disruptions, among others”.
For this reason, the Conference of Presidents of the ORs also called on the Council to “be particularly vigilant with regard to the evolution of the health situation in the ORs and to apply appropriate and accelerated vaccination strategies”.
In the context of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the “preservation of the POSEI budget beyond 2022” is advocated and the “negative effects that a possible reduction of that budget could have on the ORs” are recalled.
This is the case of “production losses, abandonment of agricultural holdings and degradation of the agricultural landscape and, in particular, of rural areas”.
Covid-19
The Regional Health Authority has said that in the last four days the number of new positive cases of Covid-19 resulting from 5,176 tests is 53. These tests were carried out in reference laboratories in the Region, in private laboratories with conventions, in the Regional Health Service, through rapid tests (mass screening), in the laboratory of Terceira University and by means of tests carried out in the scope of occupational medicine.
São Miguel registered most of the cases with 46. Santa Maria had 1 and Flores had 6
There have been some recoveries, 81 in total. Most of them on the island of São Miguel with 76. 2 on Santa Maria and Terceira had 3.
There are currently 869 people on active surveillance.
12 patients are hospitalized, 11 in the Hospital of Divino Espírito Santo in Ponta Delgada, with one in the Intensive Care Unit, and one in the Hospital of Santo Espírito on Terceira Island.
As of today, the Region has 191 positive cases, 181 in São Miguel, seven in Flores, two in Santa Maria and one in Terceira.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 4,946 positive cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores, 4,602 people recovered from the disease and 31 died.