Azores Situation Report Wednesday 7th July 2021
From our colleague in the Azores
Àgua de Pau Mass Testing.
Last Monday was the first day of massive testing in the parish of Água de Pau, in São Miguel, the turnout was good, despite the light rain that was falling, with several people responding to the call for “civic duty”.
At 3:15 pm, a quarter of an hour before the scheduled time, the line for the João Bosco Mota Amaral Community Centre was running up Rua da Ribeira, approaching the square where the Ermida de São Tiago is located.
People responded to the call for voluntary testing in the parish that is needing more attention currently.
The 59 cases of Covid-19 registered in that locality, of about 3,100 inhabitants (according to the 2011 Census), largely contribute to the total of 99 active positive cases in the municipality of Lagoa, on the island of São Miguel.
Not even the light rain that was falling, kept away those who voluntarily responded to the challenge of the Regional Directorate of Health, which worked in partnership with the Health Unit of Ilha de São Miguel (USISM), the Municipality of Lagoa, the Água de Pau Parish Council and the Ordem dos Enfermeiros to set up the operation which, between Monday and Wednesday, hopes to test about 2,500 people over 6 years old.
“There is an outbreak in Água de Pau and that is why we are here, to try to get more positives”, the chairman of the Board of Directors of USISM, Pedro Santos said, noting that the ideal would be that no more cases would be detected.
But the main objective of the operation is “to break transmission chains, to avoid further contagion”.
It was just after 3:30 pm when people start to be called into the enclosure. “Good afternoon, have you had ‘Covid’ for less than three months?” the operational assistants are asking, to assess whether or not that person can take the test.
Those who had the disease caused by the new coronavirus recently may still be positive, so they are excused. Exempted are also all those who have already had the complete vaccination process, with a dose of two doses, or a single dose in the case of the Janssen vaccine.
The tests used are, as is usual in these operations, antigen tests, or rapid tests, so that everyone will leave that space knowing, after a wait that varies between 15 and 30 minutes, if the result was positive or negative.
Half an hour after the start of the operation and still no one had tested positive.
Domestic Violence.
The Covid-19 pandemic “increased the severity” of cases of domestic violence in the Azores, a region with a high incidence rate of these situations that may be related to “very pronounced remnants of a patriarchal society”, according to specialists.
Advanced data from 2019 indicate that the Ponta Delgada office (Island of São Miguel) of the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV) recorded a total of 1,011 visits to 285 victims of 1,048 crimes.
Maria José Raposo, coordinator of UMAR – Alternative Women’s Union Response/Azores warns that the pandemic has led to cases with “more severe circumstances”, for example of women “over 60 years old, who throughout their lives have had serious behaviours of violence in their marriage and there comes a time when, physically and psychologically, they can no longer withstand such violence”.
For the official, the high incidence of cases of domestic violence in the Azores can be ‘justified’ by standards of a “patriarchal society” instilled and “transmitted by the mother or the father”.
This causes victims to “minimize all signs of marital violence” by submitting themselves to aggressive behaviour, he described.
“We still have very strong remnants of a patriarchal society, in which men still prevail in relationships. If this is instilled in the girls, they leave for that relationship already in inequality. Therefore, they will be subjected to emotional, physical, psychological subjugation, economic and financial”.
Parallel to marital violence, the UMAR victim support technique also reveals the “very frequent” existence of cases of violence by children against parents, specifically “on the mothers” and which “have a lot to do with alcohol and other substances”.
Pointing to a “slight decrease in the number of support cases from 2019 to 2020”, the manager of the APAV victim support office in Ponta Delgada, Raquel Rebelo pointed out that “the cases were more severe”.
This year there are still no total numbers, but APAV indicates “an increase” of situations, whose “complexity of action remained”.
The island of São Miguel, where the APAV victim support office is located in Ponta Delgada, has close to 80% of cases of violence.
More than 80% of the victims were female, while the rest were male.
The complaints arise “via telephone contact, through the victim and the community, namely neighbours, acquaintances, friends, relatives, and even co-workers”, according to data from APAV.
Regarding age groups, the most frequent victims are between 25 and 54 years old. In most cases, the aggressors are spouses or ex-spouses.
In 2020, the year that covers the Covid-19 pandemic, APAV “supported 250 victims of crime”.
“There is an increasing trend in the level of processes and the severity continues to be compared to 2020”, highlights Raquel Rebelo.
At issue are situations that have “already been occurring”, but which have intensified with the confinement and more permanent coexistence between victims and aggressors, leading to an action that implied “more articulation with other entities”, namely in terms of health, housing and with PSP.
According to the official, “the prolonged coexistence came to accentuate escalations of violence”.
Maria José Raposo added that UMAR has carried out, per year, “between 60 to 70 actions for training in gender equality”.
In the Azores there is an integrated support network for women victims of violence that brings together various institutions with answers in these areas and telephone lines that work daily.
Covid-19
3rd July 2021
29 new positive cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the Azores, all in São Miguel, resulting from 2,516 tests carried out in reference laboratories in the Region and two in an unconventional laboratory.
One of them refers to a traveller, resident, with a positive test on the 6th day, all the others are in the context of community transmission. Thus, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande there were nine new cases (three in Rabo de Peixe, three in Ribeira Seca, two in Ribeirinha and one in Maia). In the municipality of Ponta Delgada there were eight new cases (four in Covoada, two in Arrifes, one in São Pedro and one in Sete Cidades). In the municipality of Lagoa there are 12 new cases (six in Rosário, four in Água de Pau, one in Santa Cruz and one in Cabouco).
22 recoveries were recorded and as of today, four patients are admitted to the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital, in Ponta Delgada, one of them in the ICU.
4th July 2021
50 new positive cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the Azores, all in São Miguel, resulting from 2,601 tests carried out in reference laboratories in the Region.
Two of these new cases refer to travellers, one non-resident, with a positive analysis on the 6th day and the other resulting from screening on the 6th day of an inter-island traveller, between São Miguel and Terceira. All others are in the context of community transmission.
Thus, in the municipality of Ribeira Grande there were 20 new cases (nine in Rabo de Peixe, four in Ribeira Seca, two in Matriz, one in Pico da Pedra, one in Ribeirinha, one in Conceição, one in Santa Bárbara and one in Maia). In the municipality of Ponta Delgada there were 20 new cases (11 in Arrifes, three in Sete Cidades and one in each of the parishes of São José, Relva, Fajã de Baixo, São Pedro, São Sebastião and Fajã de Cima). In the municipality of Lagoa there were nine new cases (eight in Água de Pau and one in Santa Cruz). In the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo there was a new case in Ribeira Seca.
A recovery was registered, in Velas, São Jorge island.
5th July 2021
30 new positive cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the Azores, one on the island of Pico, three on the island of Terceira and 26 on the island of São Miguel, following 1,015 tests carried out in the reference laboratories of the Region.
On the island of Pico, a new case was diagnosed in Madalena, leading to a new transmission chain on the island. On the island of Terceira, two cases were diagnosed in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo (one in Santa Luzia and one in Sé) and one in the municipality of Praia da Vitoria in the parish of Cabo da Praia. The diagnosed cases concern one traveller, non-resident, who tested positive upon arrival and two travellers, residents, who tested positive on the 6th day, following inter-island travel between São Miguel and Terceira.
On the island of São Miguel, there was a new case concerning traveller, resident, who tested positive upon arrival, after a travel from outside the archipelago. The rest of the cases are in the context of community transmission. Thus, the municipality of Ribeira Grande registered 10 new cases (four in Rabo de Peixe, two in Conceição one in Pico da Pedra, one in Matriz one in Ribeirinha and one in Ribeira Seca). There were six new cases in the municipality of Ponta Delgada (three in Arrifes, two in Covoada and one in São Pedro). There were seven new cases in the municipality of Lagoa (five in Água de Pau, one in Rosario and one in Ribeira Chã). In the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo there were three new cases in the parish of Água de Alto.
33 recoveries have been registered.
6th July 2021
11 new positive cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the Azores, one on the island of Faial, one on the island of Pico, one on the island of Flores, two on the island of São Jorge and six on the island of São Miguel, following 5,954 tests carried out in the reference laboratories of the Region — in the period from June 25th to July 1st, there were some technical constraints which made it difficult to compute the results of all screening tests for SARS-CoV-2. The total number of analyses processed in the archipelago is now updated.
On the island of Pico, a new case was diagnosed in São Mateus, municipality of Madalena, resulting from screening test on arrival to a non-resident traveller. On the island of Flores there was a positive case in Fajã Grande, municipality of Lajes, resulting from screening test on arrival to a non-resident traveller. On the island of São Jorge, there were also two positive cases in Velas, concerning two non-resident travelers who tested positive on the 6th day. On the island of Faial there is a new case in Angústias, municipality of Horta, of a resident who tested positive on the 6th day.
On the island of São Miguel, there were six new cases resulting from community transmission. Thus, the municipality of Ribeira Grande had five new cases (four in Matriz and one in Ribeira Seca), and in the municipality of Ponta Delgada there was a new case in Sete Cidades.
18 recoveries were registered. One of the cases previously reported for Santa Maria, with a history of interisland air connection, for which the SARS-CoV-2 screening test produced a positive result, provided documentation showing a previous infection and recovery, and is not considered an active case in the Region.
Seven patients are in hospital, all in the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital in Ponta Delgada, none in intensive care.
There was a death during yesterday of a patient who was in hospital at the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital in Ponta Delgada, a 51 years old man, residing in Calhetas, Ribeira Grande. The man concerned died as a result of organ or system failure related to chronic disease. In the present case, the death certificate does not indicate a direct cause of the death complications arising from SARS-CoV-2 infection, even though the patient was also infected.
The archipelago currently has 300 active positive cases: 285 on the island of São Miguel, five on the island of Terceira, three on the island of Pico, two on the island of Graciosa, two on the island of São Jorge, two on the island of Faial and one on the island of Flores. A primary local transmission chain has been extinguished in Faial and there are now two active transmission chains in the archipelago, one on the island of Faial and one on the island of Pico. To date, 204 have been extinguished on all islands. There are 2,133 people under active surveillance today.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 6,499 positive cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores and 6,025 people recovered from the disease. There were 34 deaths, 83 people who left the archipelago and 57 cases with history of previous cure. To date, 585,049 tests have been carried out for SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19 disease.
Since last December 31st, 2020 and until June 30th, 224,012 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the Azores, with 124,738 people who received the first dose (51.4 % of the population) and 99,274 people with complete vaccination (40.9 %), under the Regional Vaccination Plan.