Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 27th January 2021
Municipality of Olhão creates Support Centre for Public Health
In view of the significant increase in the number of positive cases and people in prophylactic isolation in the municipality of Olhão, the Ministry decided to create a Support Center for Public Health, which has been in full operation since last Thursday, January 21st, and that this afternoon (26th January) was visited by the mayor, António Miguel Pina.
According to the municipality, in a statement, the structure, included in the Municipal Civil Protection Emergency Plan, is part of the Municipal Operational Command Post, and works under the coordination of the Health Delegate at the José Mariano Gago Municipal Library.
The operation was preceded by a training program directed to the technicians of the municipality, taught by public health doctors, where all the protocols of their performance were defined. In addition to technicians from the Public Health Unit of Olhão and the Municipal Civil Protection Service, 32 other municipal employees were temporarily assigned to this service, whose activity, due to the current context, was suspended, highlights the same source.
Among other functions, the employees of this Centre will carry out the epidemiological monitoring of the population, namely with the conduct of epidemiological surveys, increasing the effectiveness of monitoring people under active surveillance, an operation that the municipality considers essential to lock the transmission chains.
In addition, they will also proceed with the production and sending of all the inherent documentation, namely the prophylactic isolation statements.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/municipio-de-olhao-cria-nucleo-de-apoio-a-saude-publica/36492-1

Covid-19: Loulé celebrates Carnival with decorations, photos and prom in streaming
Loulé will celebrate Carnival with decorations, photographs from previous editions and ‘placards’ in the main artery of the city, in addition to the Internet transmission of the ball, the municipality revealed to Lusa.
“We live with the problem and we have to adapt and face the problem and play Carnival with the Covid-19, it is also a way to hide the problem”, defended the Mayor of Loulé, Vítor Aleixo.
According to the mayor, there will be no floats or bands to parade, but “small structures” with “dolls” and photographs of “old-style carnival corsages” will be installed in “fourth or five points” on Avenida José da Costa Mealha.
It is also planned that “a bus with an animator” will circulate through the main streets of Loulé to allow people to “see it from their windows”.
The route will be transmitted in streaming – via the Internet – because there is still the indecision “if people will be confined on the date”, added the Mayor of Loulé.
There will also be a dance, in a format without assistance, with the performance of the band that traditionally animates the night to be transmitted via Internet, for those who want to feel the “spirit and atmosphere of the Carnival balls”.
Vítor Aleixo warned, however, that there is still a dose of uncertainty in this program, assuming that it is a “proposal that is made” to anyone who finds the disposition to, “in this very different way and adapted to a pandemic circumstance”, celebrate Carnival.
The mayor also stressed that the municipality did not want to “fail to remember the date” and, in a kind of “fidelity to one of the most rooted festive traditions in the community”, to continue to celebrate it, choosing precisely Covid-19 as the theme for the 2021 edition.
The Loulé Carnival is one of the oldest in the country, attracting thousands of people annually.
However, said the Mayor, this year this will not happen, which will have a major impact “on hotel and local accommodation”, as well as on “local restaurants and shops”.
“We estimate that there are more than three million euros of which the local economy is private, at a time when it was so needed”, estimated Vítor Aleixo.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/covid-19-loule-celebra-carnaval-com-decoracoes-fotografias-e-baile-em-streaming/36491-1

Faro suspends parking charges
The municipality of Faro has suspended the payment of parking in tariff areas in areas throughout the county, while maintaining circulation restrictions, the municipality announced today.
The measure went into effect this afternoon and follows the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic seen in recent days.
The suspension has a “significant impact”, in the order of “55 thousand euros per month”, in the accounts of the municipal company Ambifaro, which since June 2019 took over the management of parking meters in the city, the Mayor of Faro told Lusa, Rogério Bacalhau.
Rogério Bacalhau assumed that the decision should remain “in principle until the end of the month, as long as confinement lasts”, but “if there is another confinement” the situation “will remain until it ends”.
With this extraordinary measure, the municipality intends, above all, to safeguard the parking of residents in the tariff zones that are now forced to collect in their homes.
During the first period of confinement, last year, the municipality took a similar decision, integrated in what it called measures to support the economy, with the suspension of payment of parking meters in April and May, reflecting an impact of 110 thousand euros in the accounts of the municipal company.
For the Mayor of Faro this is a “fair and timely” measure and serves mainly to “give a signal to the citizens” that, while this most acute phase of the pandemic lasts, it is necessary that “everyone stay home, only leaving for justified and imperative reason “.
Municipality of Vila Real de Santo António keeps school cafeterias open
In order to assist economically vulnerable families, the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António will maintain the dining halls under its jurisdiction in operation in the three parishes, thus ensuring the provision of school meals to students covered by the Social Action (ASE), by prior appointment of parents.
In a note issued today, the city council states that in the parish of Vila Nova de Cacela the refectory of the Manuel Cabanas Kindergarten will be in operation, which is managed by the municipality, and the direction of the group contacted the parents of the students covered by the school social action in order to verify which families are interested.
Considering that, among the students enjoying meals, some were in isolation, the direction of the Grouping, with the agreement of the municipality, chose to provide meals on a take-away basis.
At Monte Gordo basic school and the 2nd and 3rd cycle D. José I, the school cafeterias, managed by the D. José I School Group, will also remain open for the provision of meals to students covered by the ASE, in person.
At the Santo António School, the cafeteria managed by the Municipality of VRSA will also remain open for the provision of meals.
Caregivers of students from the D. José I Group who are interested in this service, as communicated by the principal, must proceed with the prior appointment of meals.
According to the information provided by the Regional Education Delegate to the Group Directors, meals must be served in person or, exceptionally, on a take-away basis.
https://www.algarveprimeiro.com/d/covid19-municipio-de-vila-real-de-santo-antonio-mantem-refeitorios-escolares-abertos/36483-1

Covid-19: Campers and motorhomes choose Algarve for security confinement
Campers and motorhomes choose campsites in the Algarve to comply with the confinement imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, some combining nature with teleworking, highlighting the security conditions they encounter in the south of the country.
Amidst the trees of Salema’s Eco Camp, in Budens, in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, the area reserved for motorhomes has an occupation of over a hundred people, with the usual retired tourists, but not only these.
“We had a retired senior camping client in the Algarve, and that has completely changed. We are in an age range of around 40-45 years, with many ‘digital nomads’, working remotely, with many people who have decided to leave Europe’s big urban centers and spend their confinement in the middle of nature, possibly in the most sure that it exists, that it is Portugal and the Algarve”, revealed to Lusa Joaquim Lourenço, leader of the Association of Alentejo and Algarve Camping Sites (APCAA).
This is the new reality most present in parks where there is a demand for “sea sports, such as ‘surfing’ and spearfishing”, and where it is possible to “combine life in nature”. The infrastructures normally sought by the “seniors”, on the other hand, have a “lesser demand”, he added.
The director and owner of Eco Camp Salema refers to the investment he had to make in improving the internet access network, such was the demand for people in telework.
In March last year, during the first confinement decreed by the Government in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the campsites had to close, reopening only in mid-May with a maximum capacity of two thirds of their total capacity.