Azores Situation Report Wednesday 6th October 2021
From our colleague in the Azores
Covid -19
Since the last Situation Report a week ago on the 29th September there have been 106 new cases of Covid-19 registered, more than last week, and 76 recoveries.
Current situation:
The Azores currently have 146 active positive cases, 133 in São Miguel, seven in Terceira, five in Faial and one in Pico.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 9,078 positive cases of covid-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores, with 8,708 people having recovered from the disease. 42 died, 95 left the archipelago and 87 presented proof of previous cure.
From December 31st, 2020 until September 29th, 173,125 people have been vaccinated in the Azores with the first dose (73.2 percent) and 190,817 with full vaccination (80.7 percent), under the Regional Vaccination Plan.
As of yesterday, there are 10 inpatients, six at the Divino Espírito Santo Hospital, in Ponta Delgada, none in intensive care, two in the Santo Espírito da Ilha Terceira Hospital, with one in intensive care, and one in the Horta Hospital, also in intensive care.
The Transmissibility Index, or Rt, is an indicator of how many people a given individual can infect, within a given period. In the Azores it is 1.06 this week.
Mask Wearing
The Azores region has largely fallen in line with Continental Portugal regarding mask wearing. It is mandatory to wear masks or visors to access or stay inside commercial spaces and establishments, including shopping centres, with an area greater than 400 square meters, Citizens’ Shops, educational establishments, schools and day care centres, except in outdoor recreational spaces.
It is also mandatory in concert halls, cinematographic film exhibition halls, congress halls, venues for events of a corporate nature, improvised venues for events, namely cultural, or similar, venues for sporting events and celebrations and health establishments and services.
The use of masks is also mandatory in residential or care facilities or home support services for vulnerable populations, elderly people or people with disabilities, as well as integrated continuous care units of the National Integrated Continuous Care Network and other dedicated residential structures and responses to children and young people and in places where this is determined in the norms of the General Directorate of Health, informs the circular issued.
It is also mandatory to wear masks or visors by workers in bars, clubs, restaurants and similar, as well as in commercial establishments and those providing services where physical contact with the customer necessarily occurs.
Explosive Material
The Public Security Police carried out a nationwide police operation, entitled ‘ARMEX I-2021’, which seized 530 kilos of explosive material on the island of São Miguel. The operation took place between September 30th and October 1st, with the Police from the Weapons and Explosives Nucleus carrying out several inspection actions throughout the Region, culminating in the apprehension 530 kg of explosive material, which were stored outside the legal conditions, on the island of São Miguel
The inspection actions are part of the operational strategy of the Azores PSP Regional Command and aim at the control of weapons and explosives and the verification of the legal requirements for their storage.
Volcanic Dust
The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) confirmed today that some of the particles emitted by the volcano of Cumbre Vieja, in La Palma, have reached the Azores, causing a “significant reduction in horizontal visibility”.
In a statement, the IPMA has said that following the eruption of the volcano, on September 19th, “gases and particles have been emitted into the atmosphere” that “are transported over long distances”.
“According to the forecast results of the atmospheric monitoring service of the Copernicus program (CAMS), some of these particles have arrived in the Azores archipelago in the form of sulphate aerosol”.
The IPMA emphasizes that the sulphate aerosol “results from the liquid phase reaction of sulphur dioxide with water”, forming “small liquid particles”.
These particles, which can be “transported by the wind”, have “optical properties that contribute to a greater dispersion of light and, consequently, cause a reduction in visibility”.
IPMA observations confirm a significant reduction in horizontal visibility by these particles in the central and eastern groups of the Azores, which are expected to be found mainly in a layer below 800 meters in altitude”, the statement said.
The IPMA also refers that the “high humidity” registered in the Azores will have “increased the size of the particles”.
Today, the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA) said it was studying the possibility that a chemical reaction caused by the volcano of La Palma was creating a “fog” around some islands of the Azores, a possibility that has now been confirmed.