Algarve Situation Report Saturday 22nd May 2021

 

Covid.19: Algarve decreases active cases and hospitalizations compared to last week

The Algarve has 296 active cases in Covid.19, informed the District Civil Protection Commission of Faro based on data from ARS Algarve.

Up to yesterday, 21,827 were infected, 22 more in the last 24 hours and 21,175 recovered (cumulative).

There are 289 patients recovering at home and 7 hospitalized, 2 in the Intensive Care Units and 1 ventilated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 356 deaths have been recorded in the region.

Currently, 1,011 people are under active surveillance.

Compared to last week’s bulletin, 26 fewer active cases and 129 new cases are confirmed. Another 154 people are recovered.

There are 2 less hospitalized patients (7), 2 less patients in intensive care (2) and 2 less ventilated patients (1). Under active surveillance there are 11 fewer people.

 

Covid.19: Algarve with 4 counties on alert (+ 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants)

The Council of Ministers held this Thursday, defined the counties that advance and retreat in the lack of definition and those that are in a state of alert.

At the usual press conference, held in Lisbon, the Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, explained that, of the ten municipalities that are on the alert level with more than 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the country, 4 are from the Algarve: Albufeira, Lagoa, Tavira and Vila do Bispo.

In the Algarve region, today’s bulletin reveals that 18 cases were registered, with 22,080 infections accumulating and 362 deaths.

Algarve has 17 more beaches with Gold Quality

The Algarve is the region of the country that gained the most beaches with Gold Quality in 2021, compared to last year. Altogether, there are 17 more bathing areas in the Algarve that will raise this award given by Quercus, bringing the total to 93.

According to the environmental association that attributed this flag that distinguishes the quality of bathing water from Portuguese beaches, in the bathing season of 2021 392 beaches with Gold Quality were identified in Portugal, «6 more than in 2020».

“Of the awarded beaches, 329 are coastal beaches, 52 are inland beaches and 11 are transition beaches. The increase in Quality of Gold beaches in the Algarve region stands out this year (plus 17 awards), which represents an increase of about 18%”, illustrated Quercus, in a press release.

Despite this strong rise in the Algarve, the Tagus and West region remains the most awarded, with 100 beaches of Gold Quality, six less than a year ago.

In the North region, the third with the most awarded beaches (72), there was also an increase (+6).

Next are the Azores (42 in total, two less beaches than in 2020), Madeira (30, plus 7), Alentejo (28, minus 1) and Centro (27, minus 15 and “record holder” in the loss of awards).

In 2021, Quercus was based on three major criteria for the attribution of the Gold Quality Beach classification.

Algarve Situation Report Wednesday 19th May 2021

 

AHP receives confirmation from the “Task Force” on strengthening vaccination in the Algarve.

Following the proposal submitted to the “Task Force” responsible for the Vaccination Plan against Covid-19 with the request for priority vaccination of the population of the Algarve, the Association of Hotelaria de Portugal (AHP), said in a statement that it received confirmation of the intention to start strengthening vaccination in the Algarve region, accelerating the rate of vaccinated population.

“It is with great expectation that we received recognition for our proposal to speed up the vaccination of residents and tourism professionals in the Algarve region, the main national tourist destination. Add to its relevance at the moment when it is already possible to make tourist trips from some markets, among which, the British, are vital for tourism in the Algarve”, says Raul Martins, president of AHP.

The purpose of the AHP proposal, presented on May 13th, is to guarantee a quick resumption of tourism activity and maintenance of companies and jobs in a region very dependent on tourism activity.

“We are at a crucial stage for tourism, with the opening of airspace to some destinations and with the approach of summer, and it is important to transmit confidence both to the Portuguese population and to those who visit us. With the reinforcement of vaccination in the Algarve region, we will, for sure, ensure a greater competitiveness of the destination”, concludes Raul Martins.

AHP says that according to Eurostat data released in April, the Algarve was the Portuguese region that registered the highest unemployment rate in 2020, reaching 8.4%, followed by Madeira and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Also the Observatory of Inequalities, which recently published the study “Unemployment in 2020 – Impacts of the Pandemic, Mappings and Reflections”, indicates that the Algarve is the region of the country where the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact, largely explained by the fact the region is highly dependent on tourism, with particular emphasis on the municipality of Albufeira.

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Algarve short film about Covid-19 selected for American festival.

‘Short film 19’, an experimental documentary produced by Paradoxon Produções, directed by Hernâni Duarte Maria and music by Projeto Sonda / Pedro Glória de Lagos, was selected for the Trapped Film Festival 2021 in the USA in the category of Covid documentary films.

According to the Algarve producer, the story portrays the confinement in Portugal in the first person, the first in March 2020, in a very personal and intimate view of the director, “who films himself and films what surrounds him, in a real scenario that seems more fiction, but it is real”.

According to the same source, the film has already been selected for several festivals, “but this is the festival of internationalization”.

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Covid-19: Six agricultural workers were transferred to ZAP de Tavira.

Six agricultural workers with Covid-19 were today sent to the Population Support Zone (ZAP) in Tavira, which reopened to welcome them due to the lack of conditions for isolation in their homes, the Mayor said to Lusa.

“Six individuals were transferred to ZAP, from two different homes, and will stay there. The medical evaluation has already been carried out and, for now, everything is fine. Let’s see how the situation evolves now” said Ana Paula Martins, President of the municipality.

The Mayor justified the decision – taken today after a visit by the health authorities to the two private dwellings where the workers were staying – with the fact that “one of the houses has only one bathroom and there are no individual rooms to do the work”.

According to Ana Paula Martins, the objective is also “to ensure that [workers] do not leave” the places where they are in isolation, because “the security forces make periodic rounds, but they cannot be present at the places permanently”.

On Sunday, the Mayor had anticipated the possibility that the ZAP of Tavira’s fair and Exhibition Park could be reopened after seven cases of Covid-19 were detected among agricultural workers on Friday and another 12 on Saturday.

Speaking to Lusa, Ana Paula Martins had specified that the cases that could be housed in the ZAP were among the first seven, because the 12 infected detected on Saturday “live on the farm”, where they are going to do the isolation, since it was “verified that the necessary conditions ”exist for that purpose.

Algarve Situation Report, Saturday 15th May 2021

 

5,500 British passengers disembark in Faro on Monday

Turismo do Algarve will be at Faro Airport, next Monday, May 17, to receive all passengers from the United Kingdom, in a welcoming action that will be attended by the president of this entity, João Fernandes.

According to the Associação Turismo do Algarve (ATA), on the first day that non-essential trips to Portugal, announced today by the Government, British tourists arriving in the Algarve, between 9 am and 8 pm, will receive, as offer, a kit of protective masks and a promotional brochure of the region, with tips and suggestions, “so that they can make the most of their stay in the destination safely”, notes the ATA in a statement.

The organization says that on Monday, 17 flights from the United Kingdom and the arrival of 5,500 British passengers are expected in the region.

Pandemic stopped the growth of the last 6 years in the Algarve

The Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) of the Algarve Region has made available another edition of the “Numbers in Highlight”, this time dedicated to the regional accounts of 2019.

This bulletin follows on from the availability of the final data for the 2018 regional accounts and the provisional data for 2019 by the National Statistics Institute, presenting a summary analysis and evolution of a set of indicators that globally reflect the macroeconomic panorama of the region.

Thus, CCDR refers to the favourable national and international context that led to a cycle of economic growth in which the Algarve region has since 2014 performed almost always above the national average, having even recorded the real rate of change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) highest in 3 annual periods.

Although in 2018 and 2019 there was a slowdown in growth compared to previous years, the same source points out that the Algarve continued to reinforce its contribution to national GDP, representing almost 4.8% in the last year under analysis.

The provisional data for the 2020 regional accounts will be published in December and will mirror a new cycle, strongly marked by the consequences of the external shock caused by the pandemic, which shook the world and local economy with a special impact on the Algarve as it has an economic base almost exclusively linked to the tourism sector.

 

Covid-19 Transmission and Incidence Rates Algarve

The Algarve and the Azores have a transmissibility index (Rt) of SARS-CoV2 higher than 1, said the INSA today, advancing that, between 01 and 09 of May, this indicator increased from 0.91 to 0.99 in the country.

According to the weekly report of the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) on the evolution of the epidemic curve, the Algarve presents an Rt – which estimates the number of secondary cases of covid-19 resulting from an infected person – of 1.08 and the Azores of 1.04.

With regard to the remaining regions, Alentejo is now at 1, while the rest have an Rt below this limit: North with 0.92, Centre with 0.93, Lisbon and Vale do Tejo with 0.95 and Madeira with 0.97.

In the previous report, released on May 7, all regions of the country had an average transmissibility index of the new coronavirus below 1, which varied between 0.81 in Alentejo, the lowest, and 0.97 in Madeira, the highest.

 

Algarve Situation Report, Saturday 15th May 2021

5,500 British passengers disembark in Faro on Monday

Turismo do Algarve will be at Faro Airport, next Monday, May 17, to receive all passengers from the United Kingdom, in a welcoming action that will be attended by the president of this entity, João Fernandes.

According to the Associação Turismo do Algarve (ATA), on the first day that non-essential trips to Portugal, announced today by the Government, British tourists arriving in the Algarve, between 9 am and 8 pm, will receive, as offer, a kit of protective masks and a promotional brochure of the region, with tips and suggestions, “so that they can make the most of their stay in the destination safely”, notes the ATA in a statement.

The organization says that on Monday, 17 flights from the United Kingdom and the arrival of 5,500 British passengers are expected in the region.

Pandemic stopped the growth of the last 6 years in the Algarve

The Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR) of the Algarve Region has made available another edition of the “Numbers in Highlight”, this time dedicated to the regional accounts of 2019.

This bulletin follows on from the availability of the final data for the 2018 regional accounts and the provisional data for 2019 by the National Statistics Institute, presenting a summary analysis and evolution of a set of indicators that globally reflect the macroeconomic panorama of the region.

Thus, CCDR refers to the favourable national and international context that led to a cycle of economic growth in which the Algarve region has since 2014 performed almost always above the national average, having even recorded the real rate of change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) highest in 3 annual periods.

Although in 2018 and 2019 there was a slowdown in growth compared to previous years, the same source points out that the Algarve continued to reinforce its contribution to national GDP, representing almost 4.8% in the last year under analysis.

The provisional data for the 2020 regional accounts will be published in December and will mirror a new cycle, strongly marked by the consequences of the external shock caused by the pandemic, which shook the world and local economy with a special impact on the Algarve as it has an economic base almost exclusively linked to the tourism sector.

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