Algarve Situation Report 8 June 2022
DECO/Algarve launches campaign to combat food waste.
The Portuguese Consumer Protection Association (DECO) in the Algarve launched this Tuesday a campaign whose objective is to raise awareness of the importance of combating food waste and changing consumer behaviour.
Sandra Rodrigues, from DECO’s Algarve delegation, explained that the campaign, in video format, aims to make people aware “of a problem that has a great impact on the economy”.
“Food waste has a great impact from an economic point of view, not only on countries, but also on people, consuming environmental resources, which are already scarce”, he pointed out. The video, entitled “Food without Wasting”, contains information and advice “to raise awareness and help people change their behaviour, fighting food waste”, he stresses.
According to DECO, which launches the campaign on the occasion of World Food Safety Day, it is estimated that each Portuguese person wastes, on average, about 134 kilograms of food per year. According to the association, in Europe around 89 million tons of food are thrown away every year, while around 1.1 billion people go hungry, that is, one sixth of the world’s population.
The microproject, which has already reached more than 100 consumers in the Algarve, is financed by ACCIONAD-ODS (Actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals), under the European program INTERREG V Spain/Portugal (POCTEP).
The initiative also has the financial support of local actions to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, especially the SDGs in the points “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, “Sustainable Consumption and Production” and “Action against Global Climate Change”.
The link to the Video is here. https://youtu.be/y7ZryZLx8kA
More Arrests this last week in the fight against Drugs in The Algarve.
In the continued fight against the illegal trade in drugs, The GNR detained eight people and seized 187 doses of narcotics, between last Thursday and Saturday, as part of an operation to combat crime carried out in nightlife areas of the Algarve, it was announced this week.
In a statement, the GNR said that it had arrested six men and two women, aged between 17 and 41, in Albufeira , Vilamoura and Portimão, for drug trafficking. According to the force, the operation targeted “mainly the areas with the greatest number of people and nightlife in Albufeira, Vilamoura and Portimão”, with “random inspection actions being carried out in several places in those municipalities”.
During the operation, 47 doses of cocaine, 138 doses of hashish, two doses of liamba, a mobile phone and 580 euros were seized. The detainees were made arguidos and the facts were reported to the Albufeira Judicial Court, the Loulé Judicial Court and the Portimão Judicial Court.
The operation involved personnel from the Albufeira Criminal Investigation Centre, the Vilamoura Territorial Post and the Portimão Criminal Investigation Centre.
In another operation, The Judiciary Police ( PJ ) arrested, in Alvor, in the municipality of Portimão , a man suspected of trafficking more than 120 kilos of cocaine.
In a statement, the PJ quoted that at 00:50 this Friday, the alleged trafficker, 30 years old and not of Portuguese nationality, was preparing to pack and transport 120.5 kilos of cocaine.
“The drug was packed in small bundles and was located inside and outside a vehicle that was in a dirt parking lot, in a deserted and unlit place,” the note reads.
The PJ adds that it will continue to investigate the case and that the detainee will now be present for the first judicial interrogation, at the Court of Portimão, for possible application of coercive measure.
Covid 19 deaths continue in the Algarve.
Eight people died in three days with covid-19 in the Algarve. The number of people with covid-19 hospitalised in Algarve hospitals is 56, and six are in intensive care and two are ventilated. The Algarve recorded on Monday, June 6, 206 more cases of covid-19. There are currently 11,447 active cases and 3,812 on active surveillance.
According to the DGS weekly epidemiological bulletin, the Algarve recorded 5,972 infections by SARS-CoV-2 (479 less) and 10 deaths (the same number as the previous week) between 24 and 30 May. The seven-day incidence was, on Monday, at 2,821.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, having registered an increase of 5.5% compared to the previous week , while the transmissibility index (Rt) of the SARS-CoV coronavirus -2 dropped from 1.12 to 1.00 in the region. The number of people with covid-19 hospitalised in Algarve hospitals is 56, and six are in intensive care and two are ventilated.
The region has 195,798 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic and 183,535 recovered. 816 people have already died from covid-19, 8 of them in 3 days. There are 11,391 people recovering at home.
Portimão is the municipality with the most active cases of covid-19, where there are 1948, followed by Faro with 1902, Loulé 1686, Olhão 1021, Albufeira 958, Silves 890, Lagos 699, Lagoa 597, Tavira 516, Vila Real de Santo António 391 , São Brás de Alportel 312, Monchique 136, Castro Marim 134, Aljezur 132, Vila do Bispo 87 and Alcoutim 38.
Aljezur municipality joins the CHUA decentralisation project.
The Centro Hospitalar e Universitário do Algarve (CHUA), the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve and the municipality of Aljezur agreed on June 1st a collaboration protocol that aims to introduce in the municipality of Aljezur the project “Decentralised Consultations – CHUA + Proximity”.
The project began on the day that International Children’s Day is celebrated, with paediatric home consultations using the municipality’s mobile health unit for the medical and nursing team to travel.
The pilot initiative, which is now starting in Aljezur and which will be progressively extended to cover area specialties of Internal Medicine and General Surgery, aims to avoid people having to travel long distances to get to hospitals for actions that could be done in the home.
“The strategic partnership is of enormous importance for a peripheral municipality, such as Aljezur, in which the distance to the reference hospital units, the lack of public transport, the lack of individual transport and the difficulty of locomotion of a significant number of citizens, prevent or limit access to this type of health care”, says the municipality in a statement.
The municipality of Aljezur supports the project “Decentralised Consultations – CHUA + Proximidade” with the rental and transfer to CHUA of a light passenger vehicle that will be allocated to the project, allowing the travel of doctors, nurses and other health technicians from the hospital units to the Aljezur Health Centre and the availability of the Mobile Health Unit for home consultations, according to the available services and the planning of actions to be carried out.
New Emigrant Resource Office Opens in Lagos.
Lagos has a new Emigrant Support Office (GAE), whose main objective is to support Portuguese citizens who have emigrated, or who have already returned to Portugal, as well as those whose purpose is to start a migration process.
The service, provided by the Municipality of Lagos , aims to support and inform Portuguese citizens in the social, legal, economic, education, employment, professional training, among others, guiding them towards public services aimed at, to clarify doubts or to solve more specific problems, as well as advising and informing Portuguese citizens who intend to emigrate.
The GAE is qualified to deal with subjects as diverse as the follow-up of processes in all matters related to social security, such as: requests for old-age, disability and survival pensions; work accident benefits; family allowance and unemployment benefits; vehicle legalisation and car tax exemption; equivalence of studies – recognition/equivalence of academic qualifications acquired abroad; double taxation; general legal information; investment- guidance for the creation of companies in the region, in articulation with structures to support entrepreneurship and business initiatives, among others. The GAE will also promote articulation with other entities and institutions, helping to resolve other issues.
In conjunction with the Diaspora Investor Support Office – GAID, integrated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is also intended to boost the economic potential of the municipalities with the Portuguese Communities, referencing local diaspora investment initiatives, ensuring adequate information for the conducting business in Portugal and contributing to its facilitation and promoting contact between investors and national entities.
The opening of the Emigrant Support Office (GAE) comes after the signing of the protocol, signed last January, between the municipality of Lagos and the Directorate-General for Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities (DGACCP).
The two Algarve municipalities have a total of 10 beaches, five each, followed by Tavira, with four, and Alcobaça (District of Leiria), Faro, Porto Santo (Madeira), Sesimbra (district of Setúbal), Vila do Bispo and Vila do Porto (Santa Maria, Azores), with three each.
Portimão was the city chosen to sign the “Declaration of Commitment for Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change in Water Services”, on June 1st, a document signed by municipalities and water sector management entities.
As mentioned by the municipality in a statement released, it is at kilometre 704 of the National Road N2 that the building is located, which, due to its strategic location in one of the main forest areas in the Algarve, more sensitive to fires, serves an extensive area. It was thinking about the protection of dispersed population agglomerations, the wealth in terms of flora and fauna and the natural and geological heritage that this space was created, “an enormous asset for the work of Civil Protection”, as stressed by Mayor Vítor Aleixo.
The three-day tourist pass costs 35 euros and the seven-day pass can be purchased for 45 euros at the network of 
The operation had a special focus on the Vilamoura Marina and in areas of bars and clubs in Albufeira and was the result of a “strong bet” that the GNR is making on the occasion of the “beginning of the bathing season” to “fight this type of crime at night next to nightlife spaces”, he added.
Deaths have returned to the region’s roads again in the past week when two women were killed while walking along the EN125 road near in the area of Quatro Estradas. “It was a fatal accident, in the area of Quatro Estradas, on the EN125, and the victims are two women, aged 47 and 75 years old”, said the CDOS source in Faro, specifying that the alert for the occurrence was received at 7:37 and the victims are mother and daughter. The CDOS source also said that the driver was “transported to the hospital with minor injuries”, and the GNR Traffic Accidents Nucleus is now working to investigate the causes of the fatal crash.
Through this initiative, the municipality intends to “place Monchique and its identity heritage in its affective geography ” and that “it is a territory of proximity between popular culture, music, arts and crafts and local knowledge and flavours”.