Portugal Situation Report Wednesday 3^rd February 2021

Introduction

We start the day with a sad note and that is the death of Captain Sir Tom Moore, who died yesterday aged 100 years with coronavirus. Sir Tom, who raised almost £33m for the NHS, was taken to Bedford Hospital after requiring help with his breathing on Sunday.

His daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore said he had been treated for pneumonia over the past few weeks and last week tested positive for Covid-19. The Army veteran won the nation’s hearts by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.

We covered Sir Tom’s walk at the time through our morning reports on Facebook. We send our condolences to his family and many friends. A real hero and legend who will be remembered as an inspiration to us all.

On a happier note we start the day with some positive news; namely the latest Covid-19 figures from yesterday. These showed the following trends: largest number of recoveries in one day since start of pandemic; daily new confirmed cases were the lowest since 11th January; number of total of people hospitalised and in ICU both decreased; deaths were still high but lowest in 8 days; active cases showed the largest daily decrease to date and both number of people hospitalised and in ICU decreased compared with Monday.

This could be early signs of the lockdown working, but we still need to take into account at the weekend as far as new cases are concerned. However, these are welcome signs. Now is certainly not the time to let our guard down and it is very important to ensure compliance with all the measures in place especially social distancing, hygiene and face masks.

Importantly, for those who are in Phase One of the vaccination plan who are registered with your Centro de Saúde but use a private doctor, now is the time to ensure your health records are up to date on the SMS system

Advice has been circulated to some in the foreign community to visit your private doctor obtain a letter and take it with you to the Centro de Saúde. Not unsurprisingly, some who have tried this have encountered various difficulties, because it is not an official process and also due to language communication problems in some instances.

Safe Communities approached the Director Regional Health service ARS Algarve concerning this issue in December last year to enquire about the progress that would be put in place for Phase One of the plan. Once the system had been formulated they replied last week and were able to help us explain this. The process can be downloaded here

It is important to note that this is only for those registered with the SNS, but are using private doctors instead; not those who use their Centro de Saúde as they will already have your up to date records.

Those registered with their Centro de Saúde will be contacted through SMS ahead of the vaccination. SNS reiterate not to contact your Centro de Saúde asking when you will be vaccinated – you will be informed through SMS.

Concerning fake news and misinformation on social media, we regularly read comments from ‘instant experts’ that can only have “graduated from the University of Facebook” as one of our followers put it. People are of course entitled to their opinions, but during a health crisis such comments often using dubious and unproven “so called scientific studies” could cost lives. Where we have seen these ourselves we have reported to Facebook and extreme cases other appropriate authorities.

Since fake news has the ultimate goal of manipulating public opinion, it provokes an emotional response in the reader and, therefore, it can provoke feelings of anger, distrust, anxiety and even depressive symptoms, distorting the perception of reality. Recent research points to the constant consumption of news information, especially when it comes from less credible sources, as an important explanatory factor of concern.

I have written an article on this subject which will appear in the Algarve Resident tomorrow.

Dealing with these sorts of comments places demands on our admin staff on Facebook and I am pleased therefore that Lucy Gable who has spent 25 years as a doctor in E &A has come onto the team. Thank you Lucy.

For those of you who receive our newsletter, our apologies that yesterday our issue contained an incorrect link regarding the updating of SNS records. We spotted this and the correct version was sent out within the hour.

This mornings report takes a team of four of us around 10 hours to produce and upload onto the website. We have produced around 200 editions since February 2020, providing an overview of the main news over the last day or so. By doing this it avoids numerous reports on our Facebook page throughout the day, concentrating more on topics where we need to communicate key information including those where you may need to take some form of action.

We hope you have a Safe Day.

Headlines

EU / Presidency: Costa and Von der Leyen call for European industry to be mobilized for vaccine production

The Portuguese Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission have written to European leaders to involve the industry in order to increase the capacity to produce Covid-19 vaccines and to prepare against new strains of the coronavirus.

“I wrote, with President Ursula von der Leyen, to the European Union Heads of State and Government to underline the importance of combining efforts and involving the industry to increase the production capacity and supply of vaccines in the European Union,” António Costa revealed today in his personal account on the social network Twitter.

In the same message, António Costa said that he and Ursula von der Leyen also warned European heads of state and government that it is “essential to support Commission initiatives already underway” so that Member States are “prepared in the face of possible new strains of this virus and future public health risks “.

On Tuesday, the Portuguese Prime Minister met with the executive president of the pharmaceutical multinational Astrazeneca, having received guarantees to reinforce the production capacity of vaccines against Covid-19 to meet the delivery schedule in the European Union.

In that meeting with Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s global CEO, according to António Costa, this multinational “reiterated its commitment” to “strengthen its production capacity in Europe, in order to meet the schedule of vaccine deliveries to the European Union”.

“Every day of delay in the vaccination process is a lost day and there are lives that are put at risk,” noted the leader of the Portuguese executive.

According to the Prime Minister of Portugal, a country currently presiding over the Council of the European Union, “AstraZeneca will supply the European Union with nine million additional doses of its anti-covid vaccine, for a total of 40 million doses in the first quarter, an increase of 30% over the company’s previous proposal “.

The Prime Minister added that he continues “to work together with the European Commission, in this which is another step in the long marathon for the protection of the life and health of Europeans”.

Covid-19

On Tuesday Portugal registered 260 deaths and 5,540 new cases of Covid-19, according to the daily balance of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

The bulletin states that 17,572 people recovered bringing the total to, 551,956.

The total number of active cases is now 166,888, down 12,292 compared to Monday.

As for hospital admissions, the DGS epidemiological bulletin reveals that 6,775 people are in hospital, 94 less than the previous day, and 852 in intensive care, 13 less.

Health authorities have 215,536 contacts under surveillance, 4,817 fewer than yesterday.

Regarding the 260 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, 116 occurred in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, 55 in the Centro region, 65 in the North region, 17 in Alentejo and 7 in the Algarve region.

Confirmed cases are distributed across all age groups, with the highest number of infections between 20 and 59 years of age.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 330,550 men and 401,081 women in Portugal, according to DGS data, according to which there are 230 cases of unknown sex, which are under investigation, since this data is not provided automatically.

Of the total fatalities, 6,789 were men and 6,228 women.

The largest number of deaths continues to be concentrated in the elderly over 80 years old, followed by the age group between 70 and 79 years old.

Of the total of 13,017 deaths, 8,763 were people over 80 years old, 2,661 aged between 70 and 79 years old and 1,103 were between 60 and 69 years old.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Portugal has recorded 13,017 deaths and 731,861 cases of infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus

Health

German delegation is led by the chief of the medical staff

German support for Portugal in the most acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic promised by Chancellor Angela Merkel to Prime Minister António Costa arrives today, at 1 pm, at Figo Maduro Airport, in Lisbon. The PUBLICO newspaper reported that this delegation is led by the chief of staff of the medical branch, who, however, will return shortly afterwards to Germany. The teams consist of 26 military personnel and comprised of eight doctors and 18 nurses, most of whom specialize in Intensive Care, in addition to the logistics sector.

This was the decision after the visit made last Wednesday by a German delegation that surveyed the needs in Porto and in the area of the Regional Health Administration of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, specifically at the Amadora-Sintra hospital, where, in principle, this action will focus on it. This is the area in which, currently, the rates of infected are greater and the one in which hospitals are under greater pressure

The German military carries a variety of materials, including 50 fans, pumps and infusion syringes. Its presence in Portugal is estimated at three weeks and may be extended if the evolution of the pandemic so warrants.

The confirmation of the arrival of the German military team was made by the German Minister of Defence, ahead of a joint statement on Monday evening, by the Ministries of National Defence and Health – shortly after Marta Temido Minister of Health, in a press conference, had stated that nothing was yet decided.

PGR investigates nine cases of vaccination of non-priority people

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already decided to initiate inquiries in relation to some of the cases made public, first of all those relating to Social Security in Setúbal, INEM in Lisbon, INEM in Porto and facts also reported in Portimão (Support Center of Seniors), Vila Nova de Famalicão, Arcos de Valdevez, Bragança, Seixal and Montijo . This information was given to Expresso by the Attorney General’s Office.

On Thursday, the National Association for Emergency and Civil Protection denounced vaccination to non-priority professionals at the National Institute for Medical Emergency (INEM). In a statement, INEM denied asking health authorities for more doses of the vaccine than were needed to vaccinate priority workers. After the accusations of giving the vaccine to non-priority employees, INEM guarantees that in these cases only leftovers were used.

Vaccines

China arrests over 80 suspected of selling fake vaccines

China has arrested more than 80 people suspected of involvement in a scheme to sell fake vaccines against Covid-19, which has been in operation since September last year, the official press reported today.

The state-run Global Times newspaper reported that Chinese authorities also seized 3,000 doses of the fake antigen during the operation.

According to the same source, the criminal network was present in several cities and the operation was carried out jointly by the security forces of Beijing and the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong, on the northern coast of China.

Cited by the newspaper, vaccine specialist Tao Lina said that “the ‘vaccines’, filled with saline, have no effect, but they also do not cause health problems, so it is clear that the suspects wanted money”.

Other sources cited by the Global Times argued that the chain could be involved in marketing these fake vaccines abroad.

On January 28th, Chinese pharmaceutical Sinovac, which developed one of the vaccines in the Asian country, published a statement in which it warned that some “companies and individuals” had falsified and used company authorization documents to try to act as “distributors of the CoronaVac vaccine against Covid-19 and other vaccination products in markets outside China “.

President of the Assembly of the Republic wants working group to coordinate vaccination in parliament

The President of the Assembly of the Republic yesterday suggested the setting up of a working group to monitor the vaccination process against Covid-19 in parliament, until reaching all the deputies who want to be vaccinated.

This position was conveyed by Ferro Rodrigues in a statement, in which he also referred to the process of vaccination of officials of the Assembly of the Republic “considered indispensable to guarantee the effective functioning of this sovereign body”.

“The President of the Assembly of the Republic considers it most useful to set up a working group to monitor the process that is now beginning and that will continue, on a scheduled basis, until it reaches all the deputies who want to be vaccinated, as well as the officials considered indispensable for guarantee the effective functioning of this sovereign body, reviewing the advanced proposals, on which the conference of leaders will address, in a meeting that will be convened when justified “.

In the statement, Ferro Rodrigues states that the vaccination process “started with the responses to the request of the Prime Minister [António Costa] is being developed, contemplating the observations and proposals that have been sent to the President of the Assembly of the Republic in recent days”.

According to Ferro Rodrigues, after the meeting of the leaders’ conference last Thursday, the criteria for the letter to be sent were defined – precedence of the State Protocol and members of the Permanent Commission, and with a subsequent suggestion to the parliamentary leaders of nomination based on age or health status “.

Director of the Pharmacy Service at Penafiel Hospital fired after vaccine accident

The director of the Pharmacy Service at the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega (CHTS) has been fired following last week when there was a failure to use the refrigeration system, which damaged 130 vials of vaccines against Covid-19, which would have been used to vaccinate about 600 professionals.

At the time of the incident, the CHTS Board of Directors opened an “inquiry process” to ascertain responsibilities and evaluate submitting a criminal case.

The batch with hundreds of vaccines against Covid-19, which was to be administered to professionals at the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa (CHTS), in Penafiel, was damaged during the night from Monday to Tuesday of the last week, making it impossible to use it.

At the time, a source from the CHTS Board of Directors said that everything indicated that the failure was “associated with an inadequate use of the hospital’s pharmacy refrigeration system”. The vaccines in question, 130 bottles that would give 600 doses, would be used to vaccinate health professionals.

Covid-19. Five patients transferred from Beja Hospital to the Air Force reception centre

Also according to the above report, the Armed Forces provided the SNS and the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security with a total of 12 reception centres for patients. The centres operate in military units from the three branches of the Armed Forces (Army, Air Force and Navy) in mainland Portugal and in the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores.

With 68 beds, the centre, provided as a back-up support structure, provides accommodation and meals for patients, being supplied and managed by personnel from the National Health Service, Social Security and Civil Protection

The reception centre at Air Base No. 11, in Beja, received on Monday afternoon five patients infected with the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease. According to a note from the General Staff of the Armed Forces (EMGFA), the patients came from the José Joaquim Fernandes Hospital in that city of Baixo Alentejo.

Patients were welcomed following a request from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) to EMGFA.

Economy

The Minister of State, Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, made a statement on the data on the evolution of the Portuguese economy last year, after the publication of the quick estimate by INE.

The Minister pointed out that, “in the last quarter of 2020, the Portuguese economy grew 0.4% compared to the previous quarter”.

The Office of the Minister of State and Finance issued a statement in which it states that “economic activity performed better than previously expected in the second half of the year, with a 5.1% growth compared to the first half”.

Minister Siza Vieira said that “in the year as a whole, there was a very significant drop (7.6%) compared to 2019, but much less drastic than was expected by all institutions and that Government’s projections” is (8. 5%) in the State Budget for 2021.

This sharp drop was felt across the Eurozone, particularly affecting countries where the tourism sector has the greatest weight, such as Spain (11%), Italy (8.8%) and France (8.3%), and 6.8% for the single currency economies as a whole.

Pfizer expects sales of their vaccine to reach $ 15 billion by 2021

The American pharmaceutical group Pfizer said today that it expects sales of the vaccine against Covid-19 that it developed in partnership with the German BioNTech to reach about 15 billion dollars in the year of 2021.

This sum, equivalent to 12,457 million euros, may increase if the laboratory signs additional contracts.

Pfizer, which reported quarterly results today, has already sold vaccines worth $ 154 million in the fourth quarter after the product was authorized in several countries in late 2020.

The drug maker revised upwards its adjusted earnings per share estimate it made in early January, from $ 3.00 to $ 3.10 to $ 3.10 to $ 3.20.

The total turnover in 2021 is expected to reach 59.4 to 61.4 billion dollars, which will correspond to an increase between 42% and 47%.

These predictions, underlines Pfizer, are based on the hypothesis of “a continuous recovery of macroeconomic activity and health throughout 2021 as populations are vaccinated against Covid-19”.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, Pfizer’s turnover increased by 12% to $ 11.7 billion. It was driven by the increase in sales of treatments against various types of cancer (+ 23%) and by the group of vaccines in the group (+ 17%).

The laboratory, which had recorded losses of $ 333 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, spent in the same period in 2020 achieving a net profit of $ 534 million (about 433 million euros).

Throughout the year, the group’s turnover increased 2% to $ 41,900 million and net profit fell 41% to $ 9,600 million.

Other news

Almost all river basins recorded increases in the amount of water stored

Eleven hydrographic basins registered, in January, increases in the amount of water stored, registering only a decrease in Mondego compared to the previous month, according to data from the National Water Resources Information System (SNIRH).

The decline, in the Mondego basin, “is associated with flood management”, says the bulletin referring to water availability recorded on 31 January.

According to SNIRH data, of the 60 monitored reservoirs, 25 (eight more than in the previous month) had water availability greater than 80% of the total volume at the end of the month and 12 (two less than in December) recorded lower availability and 40%.

Despite the rise registered at the end of January, only the Lima, Cávado, Ave, Douro and Tejo basins have total storage values above historical average values.

All other basins, according to SNIRH data, are below historical storage values for this time of year, namely the Mira, Guadiana and Barlavento basins.

The Ribeiras do Barlavento basin had the lowest water availability at the end of January, with 21.8%.

Following the Mira (43.4%), Sado (52.8%), Arade (55.8%), West (59.5%), Lima (64.6%), and Mondego (57.3%), among those with the lowest amount of water.

According to SNIRH data, at the end of January, the basin with the highest level of storage was that of the Douro (82.9%), followed by that of Cávado (75.4%), Guadiana (67.9%) and Mondego (67.2%).