Situation Report Azores – Wednesday 28th September 2022 –
From our colleague in the Azores
Covid-19
In the seven days from Friday 16th of September until Thursday 22nd of September there were 239 new positive cases of Covid-19 registered in the Azores, and a total of 1,979 tests performed. 221 people have recovered, and no new deaths have been recorded with the total still at 117 There are 252 active cases, 18 more than the previous week.
There are 6 patients in the region’s hospitals as of 16th of September with Covid, one of which is in hospital because of Covid. There are no patients in the ICU.
120505 people in the region have had Covid, that’s over 50% of the population.
Eight crew members rescued off São Miguel after fishing boat fire
Eight crew members were rescued about 555 kilometres from the island of São Miguel, in the Azores, after a fire broke out on the fishing vessel where they were traveling, the Navy revealed.
In a statement, the Navy said that the emergency alert was received at around 4:53 am, having been issued by the Portuguese fishing boat “Filipa Miguel”, which was located 555 kilometres east of the Azorean Island of São Miguel.
On board the vessel were eight crew members between 40 and 50 years of Portuguese nationality.
“The Portuguese Air Force C-295 aircraft, which had been involved in the search and location of the Filipa Miguel fishing vessel and the life raft, made the sighting around 08:43, confirming the fire on board”, indicates the Marine.
The crew, who were “all fine”, were rescued by the merchant ship “Thor Menelaus” around 10:47 am.
That merchant ship is currently on its way to Terceira, the island where the rescued crew will disembark, concludes the Navy.
Capelinhos volcano eruption darkened Faial sky 65 years ago
The sky turned dark, the houses “shallow sand”, the land impossible to cultivate and “half the world” went off the island, with the volcanic eruption of Capelinhos, in Faial, Azores, which began 65 years ago.
“It started with some earthquakes. From there, I would make bigger ones and we would see something dark up here, but we didn’t know what it was”, recalls António Gonçalves Pereira, 76, who was only 11 years old when the Capelinhos Volcano erupted.
The darkness of the skies was the result of the ash thrown up by the eruption, in its initial phase, but, at the time, information was scarce and it was only through radio that António discovered that, on September 27, 1957, the eruption had erupted. Capelinhos Volcano, in the parish of Capelo, municipality of Horta.
“Me and some friends came up, to try to see the volcano up close, but here the police were ahead and would not let us pass”, recalls António Pereira, also remembering the words of the agent who was on duty at the scene: “ Wing back! Can’t pass! This is always shaking the earth, suddenly a big one comes and drowns us all”.
The frequency of the earthquakes and the volume of ash released by the volcano forced the local authorities to evacuate the localities closest to the eruption (parishes of Capelo and Praia do Norte), but although there were no fatalities, many houses and farmland were destroyed.
“Many houses were destroyed! Up here, it was a disgrace! Even down there, at the foot of the volcano, there were houses that were shallow with sand”, says António, remembering that even the Capelinhos Lighthouse, which was on the slope next to the place where the eruption began, “was covered” by ash.
Faced with this scenario of destruction, the United States of America opened its doors to emigration to help the displaced from the island of Faial, influenced by some US congressmen and senators, including John F. Kennedy, who shortly after would be elected president of the USA.
“Walked half the world! A few hundred, not to say, thousands of people, left here, and it was a big thing, if not, there were people here who were serious and there was no work for everyone”, explains António Pereira, recalling that the land of cultivation “produced nothing, because “everything was full of sand” from the volcano.
It is estimated that 30% of the population of the island of Faial (currently less than 15 thousand people reside on the island) will have emigrated to the United States and Canada, taking advantage of the “Azorean Refugee Act”, approved on September 2, 1958. , through which thousands of emigration visas were exceptionally issued to citizens from the Azores.
António Gonçalves Pereira, a retired mechanic, says he never thought of emigrating, but recalls that those who stayed also counted on the help of emigrants to recover the houses destroyed by the volcano.
“Families who were abroad and those who went from here to there, got together and sent hundreds, not to say thousands of contos – at the time [the currency] was the escudo -, to help in the reconstruction here”, says António, adding that if this were not the case, the volcano’s survivors would not have been able to recover their assets.
The memories are of those who saw up close, 65 years ago, the birth of the Capelinhos Volcano, whose eruption began on September 27, 1957, and ended more than a year later, on October 24, 1958.
Currently, what remains of the eruption, worn down by the wind and the waves of the sea, is one of the main tourist attractions on the island, enhanced by an underground interpretation center, however built on site, which gathers all the information about the origin and consequences. of Capelinhos Volcano.
Azoreans have the lowest life expectancy in the country
The Autonomous Region of the Azores presented, between 2019 and 2021, the lowest value of life expectancy at birth and at age 65 in the country.
According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) for the 2019-2021 period, released yesterday, the highest value of life expectancy at birth was recorded in the North region, at 81.13 years, while the regions of Madeira (78.55) and the Azores (78.18) presented the lowest values.
Despite life expectancy having decreased in the period under analysis, INE points out that “in the last 11 three-year periods, all NUTS III regions recorded gains in longevity at birth”. In fact, in the case of the Azores, it went from 78 years old in the period 2018-2020 to 78.18 years old in the triennium 2019-2021. However, in the archipelago, life expectancy at age 65 has decreased: from 17.63 years to 17.58 years. A trend that was observed in the other regions, with the exception of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
The greatest differences in longevity at age 65 between men and women were also recorded in Madeira and the Azores, where women could expect to live on average, respectively, 4.49 years longer and 4.47 years longer than men.
Attempt to escape from jail by 33 inmates
At the Ponta Delgada prison, 33 inmates were close to making an escape this week.
According to a source from the National Union of the Prison Guard Corps, the inmates dug a hole that began in a room turned into a warehouse, behind an armoured door that they managed to open. They were 20 centimetres from the outside.
The alert from neighbours because of the noise denounced the attempt to escape.