Azores Situation Report Wednesday 16th March 2022
From our colleague in the Azores
The Regional Health Authority in the Azores will only release Covid-19 epidemiological and vaccination data on Fridays and not daily.
Government of the Azores says it will revoke the use of mask in the coming weeks
“If this record of a decrease in cases and hospitalizations is maintained, none in intensive care, for a few more weeks, and realizing that this decrease is consolidated, there will no longer be mandatory use of a mask”, said the regional secretary for Health and Azores Sports, Clélio Meneses.
The official was speaking at a press conference in Angra do Heroísmo, on the day that marks two years of the first case of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes covid-19, detected in the region.
According to the head of the Health Ministry in the Azores, the possibility of revoking the mandatory use of a mask is being analysed, one of the only measures to control the covid-19 pandemic in force in the region, while maintaining the “protection of the most vulnerable”.
“The use of a mask in spaces with people who are vulnerable or due to illness or age may still be necessary”, he said.
Government of the Azores spent 80 million euros to fight the pandemic
The Regional Government of the Azores spent around 80 million euros on the management of the covid-19 pandemic, revealed the regional secretary for Health, on the day that marks two years of the first case detected in the region.
The Azores diagnosed the first case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which causes the covid-19 disease, on March 14th 2020 (communicated the next day).
In two years, the region recorded 65,041 cases of infection, 62,917 recoveries and 94 deaths
Santo Cristo festivities take place again in São Miguel
The Santo Cristo parties, suspended two years ago due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will take place again this year, in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, in a new format, between 14th and the 26th of May.
The parties, which refer to the image of “Ecce Homo”, take place in the city of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, on the fifth Sunday after Easter.
The festivities of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, considered the second largest religious manifestation in the country after the pilgrimages to Fátima, annually bring thousands of pilgrims from all over the world to the island of São Miguel, coming from the nine islands of the Azores, from the mainland, as well as well as the United States of America and Canada.