Portugal Situation report Wednesday 3rd March 2021
Introduction
Good morning, yesterday was one year since the first two cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Portugal. Inevitably there was much reflection on the events over the last year with the President of the Republic leading, by thanking the population by the way they organized and committed themselves in responding to this pandemic, with a particular word of appreciation for the work and commitment of health professionals, thanking all concerned.
He stated that “it was desirable that, more than learning from what went well, we all have the ability to learn lessons from what went less well. Improving the ability to plan and anticipate scenarios and responses, reacting more quickly and being more adapting to circumstances, are examples of areas that should be the focus of current and future attention from all of us”
This is not, of course, confined to Portugal. After any major crisis, and this is arguably the largest for many years, it is necessary to reflect on what went well and what did not – in other words, lessons learned as well as best practices. By doing this improvements can be made in facing major challenges for the future – and there will be more.
In our report this morning we also include the work of two major hospitals in Portugal in dealing with Covid-19, the Hospital Curry Cabral (part of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central Group, (CHULC)) and Hospital Santa Maria. From these two reports it can be seen the considerable pressure these hospitals and all the doctors, nurses and all staff would have been under over the last year. We thank you all for your tremendous work operating in the most dangerous of conditions.
The national average Covid-19 infection rates per 100,000 people have improved considerably, which is clearly reflected at the local level. At extremely high-risk level there are now only 3 municipalities, according to the DGS report published on Monday, compared with 234 municipalities on 1st February 2021. This is a remarkable achievement.
When analysing yesterday’s DGS daily figures, this showed: the second lowest number of daily deaths since 29th October; in terms of new cases – 3rd lowest since 6th October; that the number of recovered patients exceeds that of new infections consecutively for 30 days; the lowest number in hospital since 31st October; lowest numbers in ICU since 18th November; number of active cases lowest since 30th December, decreasing for 29th consecutive day and over 115,000 (67.3%) since 31st January (in 26 days) and those under surveillance the lowest since mid-October.
With the improving situation, it would be easy to let our guard down, but to do so now would increase the risk of contagion and jeopardize the sacrifice that people have made during the latest period on confinement and again put pressure on hospitals and the health service, which cannot happen.
The Prime Minister stated yesterday: “It is the way we behave out there that will help us stop this pandemic. Here [in hospitals] they treat patients and save lives, but it is out there that the pandemic is stopped, each one of us, with our behaviour, with the use of a mask, with hand hygiene, with physical distance and with the deprivation of social contact”, he said.
A reminder that the deadline for land cleaning for those living in rural areas still remains 15th March. The GNR began on 22nd February the Monitoring and Awareness phase by visiting those living in high-risk areas to raise fuel management awareness in order to ensure the safety of the population. This phase, will take place until March 31. The full details of land cleaning can be found on our website. Remember if your land includes holm oak trees then special permission is required before pruning or cutting down such trees. Failure to make the application will incur a large fine.
When undertaking the burning of debris, whereas in the past it was necessary to call the local Bombeiros to register the burn, this has now changed. The procedure now is to make an on-line application either through the ICNF website or by calling the central number. To make an on-line application visit the ICNF website here. Here you can also find the ICNF manual which Safe Communities Portugal has translated into English.
If you are considering burning debris or land to dispose of pasture, we stress the need to ensure that you are physically able to do this whilst at the same time ensuring adequate safety measures to avoid the burn becoming out of control. Last year over half of rural fires were caused this way. More details are in this week’s Algarve Resident in a SCP feature available tomorrow 4th March.
So with that advice, Stay Safe.
Headline
Prime Minister calls for civic sense for confinement to be maintained strictly.
Prime Minister António Costa appealed to all Portuguese people to maintain the strictness of the confinement rules and reiterated that the pandemic can only be stopped by containing any risky behaviour.
During the visit to Curry Cabral Hospital, which marked the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, António Costa reiterated the need to maintain confinement to ensure control of the pandemic, and that the risk of unemployment and the closure of companies is increasing. But we cannot repeat what happened in the first wave, nor what happened in the second wave, nor what happened in this tragic month of January”.
“We cannot forget what happened because the idea that tragedies are not repeated is a false idea. Tragedies are repeated when the mistakes that resulted in these tragedies are repeated. It is good to keep your memory well because it is the best way to support excellent health professionals”, he added.
António Costa praised the “excellence of all health professionals” for the work they have done during the last twelve months and reiterated that the best way to support those inside hospitals “to do their best to save the life of those lives at risk” is a huge discipline in containment.
“It is the way we behave out there that will help us stop this pandemic. Here [in hospitals] they treat patients and save lives, but it is out there that the pandemic is stopped, each one of us, with our behaviour, with the use of a mask, with hand hygiene, with physical distance and with the deprivation of social contact”, he said.
Covid-19
This Tuesday Portugal recorded 38 more deaths and 691 new cases of Covid-19, according to the daily report of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS). The keys figures in the report were as follows:
Confirmed Cases: 805.647 (+ 691 / + 0.09 %)
Number of admitted: 1.997 (-170 /-7.84 %)
Number of ICU admitted: 446 (-23 /-4.90 %)
Deaths: 16.389 (+ 38 / + 0.23 %)
Recovered: 723.465 (+ 3230 / + 0.45 %)
Active cases: 68,370 (-898 / -1.19%)
Health
Covid-19: Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Central received the first of 3,316 treated patients a year ago.
Lisbon, 03 March 2021 (Lusa) – Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central (CHULC) received the first patient with Covid-19 a year ago and has since treated 3,316 patients, 313 of whom are children and young people, according to data released today to the agency Lusa.
On March 3rd, 2020, Hospital Curry Cabral, one of six hospitals that are part of CHULC, received the first patient diagnosed with Covid-19, one day after the first two cases were diagnosed in Porto, one at the Hospital of Santo António and the other at Hospital São João.
The first was a 38-year-old man who entered the Curry Cabral at 8:20 am and had to wait 10 hours until he knew the result of the analysis confirmed as positive by the National Institute of Health Ricardo Jorge (INSA), a source told Lusa from the hospital centre.
He left the hospital 10 days later, but still tested positive for Covid-19, having stayed at home in isolation until the test was negative, which happened in April.
Of the 3,316 patients who were followed up at the hospital until the 28th of February, 656 were admitted to intensive care units, including three children who received this care at the paediatric hospital D. Estefânia.
During this period 629 people died, including a child, victims of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, 222 of whom were in intensive care units (ICU).
The maximum number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 was recorded on February 7th, totalling 346, and the maximum number of open beds was reached the following day.
The data states that the maximum number of infirmary beds for adults was 274 and that of ICU level 3 beds were 60, and in paediatrics, there were 17 and two beds, respectively.
Covid-19 – One year: Hospital Santa Maria treated around 2,500 infected patients.
Lisbon, 02 Mar 2021 (Lusa) – About 2,500 patients with Covid-19 were treated this past year at Hospital Santa Maria, 450 of which in intensive care, where the survival rate is 78%, according to data from the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa North released today.
Of the 450 patients who needed to be admitted to intensive care, around fifty needed ECMO, an extracorporeal circulation device that allows them to temporarily replace the function of the heart and lungs.
According to the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte (CHULN), they were “the highest numbers in the Lisbon region and the highest in the whole country”.
In recent weeks, the hospital centre has had eight intensive care units exclusively dedicated to Covid patients, of which five are new, totalling 69 beds, the Hospital Centre says in a note sent to the Lusa agency, on the day that marks a year the appearance of the first two cases of Covid-19 in Portugal.
“This plan is now beginning to be reconverted in a phased manner to non-Covid activity, which has already resumed the priority surgeries and resumes the outpatient surgery this week”, he stresses.
In the balance sheet of a year of pandemic, the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte says that the emergency department dedicated to respiratory diseases attended about 31 thousand patients in the last year, more than half (55%) coming from outside the reference area of CHULN .
“The urgency of the Hospital de Santa Maria did not end a single day and responded to suspected Covid patients from the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and the West region, but also to users from Leiria, Santarém, Alentejo or the Algarve”, he stresses.
Nearly a third (29%) of the consultations resulted from referrals from the National Institute for Medical Emergency (INEM).
“The rate of positivity in CHULN Covid urgency was 13%, while 75% of patients tested negative for Sars-Cov-2. Eleven percent of the patients did not need to be tested and only 1% of the cases were inconclusive”, reveals the hospital centre, which includes the Santa Maria and Pulido Valente hospitals.
In total, the CHULN Clinical Pathology laboratory carried out more than 155 thousand tests for screening
Teachers and non-teaching staff to be included as a priority for vaccinations.
The Minister of Health admitted today that teachers and non-teaching staff can be included as priorities for vaccination against Covid-19, considering that schools are an “essential service”.
“When we talk about essential services – and schools are in some way in our social approach an essential service – it may make sense that adults who work in these places have a differentiated vaccination,” said Marta Temido in an interview with Jornal da Noite da SIC.
On the day that marks a year of the first cases of infection with the new coronavirus diagnosed in the country, the official considered that the inclusion of teachers and non-teachers, including those who are not at risk groups, in the first phase of vaccination that is being carried out, taking place is a “hypothesis that is being analysed, not only in Portugal, but also in other countries”.
“When we look around us and see what the processes of deflation are, we see the very intense presence of two realities: vaccination and testing”, stressed Marta Temido, adding that the experts’ opinion “is quite comprehensive in relation to those that will be the various options that can be taken”.
“This is, in fact, one of the difficulties that we have even had in communication: the fact that there is a variety of opinions on the same subject, which makes the decision process very difficult”, admitted the minister.
Schools
Marta Temido: there are no “conditions” to talk about returning to school.
Minister of Health stressed yesterday, that although there has been a decrease in cases of infection and deaths by Covid-19 in the last few days in Portugal, the situation is not yet ideal and refers more clarifications on the reopening of schools on 11th March.
Asked about returning to face-to-face education, in an interview with Antena 1, Marta Temido replied: “We are not in a position to talk about this topic yet. We have chosen to keep this information conditional on a set of circumstances, a set of hearings and specifically a calendar that has already been announced by the Prime Minister and which states that on 11th March we will report on a set of rules that, if determined assumptions remain, then they will apply.””
The Minister of Health points out that, although there has been a decrease in cases of infection and deaths by Covid-19 in the last few days in Portugal, the situation is not yet ideal. “When, in August, we had a maximum of 29 patients admitted to intensive care on a given day, yesterday we had 469. When, in August, we had 270 patients admitted to the infirmary, yesterday [Monday] we had 2167 . When, in August, we had a positive rate [from tests to Covid-19] of just over 1%, we are now still above 4%. Therefore, there are many things that, although today – because we are already used to it – seem to us to be calm, they are far from being”, he said.
According to Marta Temido, with regard to the reopening of schools and restrictions planned for Easter, the Government intends to adopt the best possible balance, despite criticism. The minister also highlights the pressure on hospitals and the contact surveillance system.
European Union Health Ministers underline need to speed up vaccinations.
The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, stated that the implementation of the National Vaccination Plans was one of the three main themes addressed during the informal meeting of the Ministers of Health of the European Union, which also counted on the presence of the European Centre for the Prevention and Control of Diseases and the European Medicines Agency.
At the press conference after the meeting, at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon, the Minister stressed that the Member States “identified the need to accelerate, together, the alignment between the response of science and the response of industry in the sense of the contracts concluded by the Commission can be fulfilled, guaranteeing the implementation of the National Vaccination Plans as soon as possible”.
Marta Temido reiterated the objectives proposed by the European Union to vaccinate 80% of people over 80 by the end of March, as well as health professionals and professionals supporting health professionals, in addition to reaching 70% of the entire population of the European Union by the end of the summer.
During the meeting, two other key themes were also addressed, said the Minister. “Circulating variants and the various strategies essential for early detection, genetic sequencing and containment, and testing strategies, underlining the importance of uniform and coordinated guidance at Member State level”.
The Minister of Health also referred that the Ministers of Health discussed the possibility of implementing “vaccination certificates and other documents useful for the mutual recognition of the health status of each citizen of the European Union”.
Covid-19: Vaccination of about 15,000 firefighters completed.
The vaccination process for the 15,000 firefighters began on February 11th and was completed last week, a source from MAI told Lusa.
Firefighters were considered a priority in this first phase of the vaccination process, taking into account the essential role of the State they perform and due to the operational dimension of the pre-hospital transport they perform.
According to MAI, the order of vaccination of these firefighters was defined by the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority “based on operational criteria and covered the universe of volunteers, sappers and municipalities”.
In this first phase, which lasted two weeks, about 50% of the total number of firefighters was vaccinated against the Covid-19.
Covid-19: Disposal of 78 doses of vaccines at the Hospital das Caldas da Rainha under investigation.
The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste confirmed today the opening of an investigation to investigate the circumstances in which 78 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 were rendered useless, allegedly due to a failure of the cold system in the 
Hospital of Caldas da Rainha.
Questioned by the Lusa agency, the Centro Hospitalar do Oeste (CHO) confirmed “the destruction of 13 vials of vaccine against Covid-19”, equivalent to 78 doses, intended for vaccination of professionals.
According to the CHO board of directors, the vaccines were discarded after on the 19th it was detected, at the Hospital das Caldas da Rainha, in the district of Leiria, “an abnormal temperature record inside the cold equipment used for the condition, due to an apparent failure of the refrigerator”.
In an email sent to the newsrooms, the board of directors states that it has already been decided to open an “investigation process to ascertain what happened”, waiting for the conclusion of the same to provide more concrete information about the vaccine’s destruction.
The Centro Hospitalar do Oeste integrates the hospitals of Caldas da Rainha, Torres Vedras and Peniche, having an area of influence constituted by the populations of the municipalities of Caldas da Rainha, Óbidos, Peniche, Bombarral, Torres Vedras, Cadaval and Lourinhã and part of the municipalities Alcobaça and Mafra. These counties are divided between the districts of Lisbon and Leiria.
Enforcement
Lisbon, 01 March 2021 (Lusa) – Three citizens with false documents were detected on Sunday at Lisbon airport by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), this criminal and border police body announced today.
In a statement, SEF said that two of these citizens were detected during the flight departure to the Republic of Ireland, in possession of other documents.
The third, however, was detained at the health control on arrival of a flight from Vienna, Austria, having identified himself with counterfeit documentation.
At the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, in Porto, SEF also held a citizen from Paris, France, on Sunday, for having presented a falsified proof of test of Covid-19.
The citizen then carried out the Covid-19 test at his own expense, inside the airport, says the SEF.
EU travel certificate does not provide for data exchange nor is it limited to vaccines.
European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, guaranteed today that the digital certificate for Covid-19 that will allow travel within the European Union does not provide for any data sharing between Member States.
“We want to avoid fundamental rights problems and violation of data protection and also discrimination between citizens”, Reynders said today in a press conference, adding that “it will be a very simple verification of data and that it will be coordinated through a legislative instrument.”
“It will be a certificate, not a passport that will give an account of the situation of each person in relation to the disease: if he was ill, if he was vaccinated or if he had a PCR test”, he underlined.
The European Commission is preparing “a legislative instrument on the data that will appear on a digital numeric certificate” that allows the vaccinated persons who have developed antibodies or who have a negative PCR test to circulate in the European Union (EU).
“We will continue to work on a way to organize free movement,” said the commissioner, guaranteeing that “there will be no discrimination in these certificates”.
“We want a legislative instrument that allows the same data to be collected on the same certificates issued through the EU. Then we will see what are the possible uses for the certificates”, he clarified.
The commissioner also said he was waiting for a response from the six Member States that banned non-essential travel, stressing that they should limit themselves to following the recommendations of the EU Council itself.
“We wrote [on 23 February] to six Member States and gave ten days for a detailed response and contacts continue with the countries,” said Reynders, stressing that the countries concerned have nothing more than to correctly implement the recommendations adopted by the Council of the United Nations. EU, a body that brings together the 27.
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden are the countries targeted.
These recommendations, he stressed, are aimed at allowing travel restrictions, through the presentation of tests or the imposition of quarantine, but avoiding prohibitions.