Azores Situation Report Wednesday 1st September 2021
From our colleague in the Azores
Covid -19
Since the last Situation Report a week ago on the 25thth of August there have been 107 new cases of Covid-19 registered and 284 recoveries.
Death
Sadly, a 76-year-old woman, resident in Ponta Delgada, who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, died.
Current Situation
The archipelago currently registers 189 positive active cases: 158 on the island of São Miguel, 17 on the island of Terceira, 4 on the island of Faial, 4 on the island of Pico, 3 on the island of Graciosa and 3 on the island of São Jorge.
Just one week ago there were 372 cases.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 8,690 positive cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the Azores and 8,291 people recovered from the disease. There have been 42 deaths, 94 people who left the archipelago and 74 cases with history of previous cure. To date, 678,166 tests have been carried out for SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 disease.
From 31st December 2020 to 30th August, 166,966 people in the Azores have been vaccinated with the first dose (70,6 per cent) and 171,510 with complete vaccination (72,5 per cent), under the Regional Vaccination Plan.
Green List
The Government of the Azores welcomed the inclusion of the archipelago in the “green list” for international travel from the United Kingdom, considering it to be the “recognition of the evolution of the fight against covid-19 in the archipelago”.
This move acknowledges the evolution of the fight against covid-19 in the archipelago, at a time when more than 70% of the Azorean population is fully vaccinated against the disease.
The British decision “was communicated by letter to the president of the [Regional] Government, José Manuel Bolieiro, by the United Kingdom ambassador to Portugal, Christopher Sainty”.
The region was recognized as the “Safest Destination in Europe for 2021” (European Safest Destination 2021), presenting, “in an increasingly evident way, excellent conditions for tourism” and “a remarkable performance in the fight against the pandemic.
The UK Ministry of Transport announced on Thursday that the Azores, along with other territories and countries, will move to the “green list” of travel from Monday 30th August.
According to the list update, carried out every three weeks, the British government only requires passengers from the Azores to submit a test to covid-19 made before departure and another in the United Kingdom.
The Azores will thus join the Autonomous Region of Madeira which was added to the “green list” at the end of June.
Covid-19 Special Monitoring Commission
The Government of the Azores announced that it will extinguish, as of September 1st, the Covid-19 Special Monitoring Commission for the Fight Against the Pandemic (CEALCPC), as it understands that its mission has been fulfilled.
As a result of the increase in the vaccination process, especially in a context of imminent group immunity, it is considered that the mission of CEALCPC has been fulfilled, recognizing the merit, competence and success with which it was pursued.
Cruise Ship Stopovers
The company ‘Portos dos Açores’, which manages the port infrastructure in the region, revealed that 100 cruise ship stopovers are planned in the Azorean archipelago by the end of the year.
The company has said that in the last four months of 2021 there should be “a significant movement of cruise ships” in the region, due to the redefinition of routes by operators, which “unequivocally privileged the Azores destination”.
“Based on these assumptions, by the end of the year, the most recent forecasts point to the completion of around 100 cruise ship stopovers”.