Algarve Situation Report, Saturday 3^rd April 2021.
Covid-19. Portimão is the municipality of Algarve with the highest incidence of cases.
Portimão is the municipality of the Algarve with the highest incidence of cases per 100 thousand inhabitants. An outbreak in civil construction has already required more than 500 tests to be carried out, of which 89 were positive.
The municipality appeals to the use of the mask and the safety distance and reminds that if in the next 15 days the situation does not improve, the deflation remains at stake, which will be catastrophic for the municipality’s economy.
On average there are 20 new cases a day in Portimão. Most are people who were already isolated, having had risky contacts, and who, in the meantime tested positive.
The construction boom began in mid-March and has already put 563 people in isolation, 89 of whom tested positive. Another contagion focus in Portimão included a bakery, but the outbreak is already under control.

Covid-19: Cost of social support “skyrockets” in municipalities in the Algarve most dependent on tourism.
The cost of social support provided by the municipalities in the Algarve most dependent on tourism ‘skyrocketed’ due to the fall in the economy resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in the three municipalities that currently concentrate half of the region’s unemployed.
According to data from the Institute of Employment and Professional Training (IEFP), Albufeira, Portimão and Loulé totalled 52% of the 33,459 unemployed registered in the region in February, with the support created by the municipalities and directed to companies and families to have a strong impact on their budgets. .
In Albufeira, support for “donating” of “food” and “medication” to people in need “has increased exponentially”, revealed the President of the municipality to Lusa, in addition to the support created in the context of the pandemic.
“Adding up everything that was not received with what was spent for all the aid, there is a reduction of 17, 18 million euros, in one year [in the budget]”, pointed out José Carlos Rolo.
This amount ended up affecting the finances of the municipality, which concentrates a good part of the Algarve hotel offer, which may postpone “some works”, mainly “in the road network”, which will have to wait for “better days”, he assumed.
The mayor expressed hope that this summer, similarly to what happened last year, the “Portuguese people head to the Algarve, in particular to Albufeira” to spend their holidays, as well as the “Spanish neighbours”.
“We have to be hopeful in the future and I think that within a month we will have tourists enjoying what is good for the Algarve and Albufeira”, he stressed.
However, if the current situation continues, José Carlos Rolo argues that they will have to “take options again” and not let “more serious situations happen”, maintaining “social support to people really in need”.
He took the opportunity to make an “appeal” to anyone who may be in need so that he is not “ashamed” of something he “is not responsible for” and stressed that one cannot “let people be hungry in Albufeira”.

Silves. Cultural and sports facilities reopen on April 5.
Following the guidelines of the de-confinement plan defined by the Government, the Municipality of Silves will reopen to the public, on the 5th of April, the Castle, the Municipal Archeology Museum, the Islamic Heritage Interpretation Centre and the Sports Complex of the Municipal Swimming Pools (in the gym and free swimming facilities).
In a press release, the municipality says that, the cultural facilities mentioned above, in addition to maintaining the same operating patterns previously in force, will be operating within their normal opening hours.
With regard to the Municipal Swimming Pools Complex, the operating patterns will be identical to those previously adopted, with mandatory marking of the use of the gym and the pool in free swimming regime. The gym, limited to the use of a maximum of 15 people at the same time, will operate from 7:30 am to 9:00 pm, in hourly blocks of 90 minutes. The pool, in free regime, can be used between 7:30 am and 4:30 pm, with a limit of eight users per hour block of 90 minutes. The use of changing rooms is only permitted for the purpose of changing clothes, with all other services (shower, sauna, jacuzzi and Turkish bath) closed.

Company fined for non-compliance in Ria Formosa says it is unaware of breaches.
A real estate company fined for violating the regulation of the Ria Formosa Natural Park Planning Plan due to movements in the land it holds in the Garrão area, in Loulé, said today it was unaware of “any administrative offense”.
“Lisfina is not aware of any misdemeanour, either on the placement of barbed wire on the Praia do Ancão land that it owns or on the ‘abusive’ deforestation procedure,” the company said in a statement.
According to a letter from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) to which Lusa had access, in addition to a lawsuit filed against the company in 2020 for the “practice of serious environmental offenses”, a new lawsuit is now underway. of administrative offence ”because the company placed a metal fence on the land without authorization.
According to Lisfina, the fence was replaced “after acts of vandalism that occurred in June 2020, including demolition of the fence, cutting the fence and cutting pine trees by strangers, who were the subject of a complaint with the GNR”.
However, according to the ICNF, the placement of the fence had not yet been authorized when it was installed, having been suggested to Lisfina, “to avoid the situation of wanton private property” that she invoked, the placement of “a living hedge with recourse native vegetation ”, reads in the letter.
According to the document, in order to prevent access to the land, the ICNF admitted the possibility of installing “a temporary protection without a permanent character, as long as the hedge did not have the dimension to fulfill the intended function”.
“However, as it was found that the installation of the fence was prior to the proper authorization, adding to that fact that in disagreement with the authorized person, barbed wire was placed on top of it, a new process of installation is underway administrative offence ”, says the institute.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/empresa-multada-por-incumprimento-na-ria-formosa-diz-desconhecer-contraordenacoes/37565-1