A ‘critical moment’ approaches // Infections highest among those in their 20s
Portuguese news in English on September 7, 2020.
By the numbers
It’s nice to see we’re down to 249 new confirmed cases today, but that’s still pretty high for a Monday, as the numbers tend to be lower at the start of the week. There were 486 new cases yesterday, the highest since the start of May. The North recorded more cases than the Lisbon and Tejo Valley region over the weekend, with only a handful of cases scattered across the other regions.
Active, recovered, deaths, contacts under surveillance, confirmed, hospitalised, in ICU.
The state of the pandemic, as told by the experts
The regular meetings of experts to discuss the pandemic are back after about two months. But this time we actually get to hear what they say instead of relying on the interpretations of various politicians. In today’s meeting, they broke down the past few weeks figures in a host of really interesting ways, pointing to an “growing trajectory” since the middle of August, Diário de Notícias reports.
Infections highest among those in their 20s
Because the more in-depth figures usually take a bit of time to compile, the period examined in most depth was August 17 to 30, in which Lisbon and the Tejo Valley had 56% of the cases and 31% were in the North. Two-thirds of the infections were in those under 50, which is good news for survivability as 67% of COVID-19 deaths in Portugal have been among those over 80 and 28% between 70 and 79. But the data also made one trend obvious (see below): those aged 20-29 have been infected in much higher numbers than the rest of the population since reopening began. Directorate-General of Health (DGS) expert Pedro Pinto Leite took the opportunity to call for the reinforcement of the preventative measures we’re all familiar with: physical distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, ventilation, not touching your face and the disinfection of common spaces. The meeting heard that the majority of deaths were in the initial stage of the pandemic.
A ‘critical moment’ approaches
The figures presented today will guide the government in what measures it introduces when the entire country passes into a state of contingency (the same in place in greater Lisbon at the moment) from September 15. On his way into the meeting, held in Porto, Prime Minister António Costa said the country would enter a “critical moment” as the end of summer holidays coincided with a return to school and the approach of autumn and winter. He said that would naturally bring a higher risk of contagion. “We have to avoid at all costs the solutions we had to adopt in March and April,” he said. “From an economic point of view, they are not sustainable. We can’t go back to economic paralysis.”
‘It would be disastrous’: business pushing to avoid another lockdown
The business world is also waiting to find out what the new measures will bring, at a time when some companies would like to have their workers in the office after summer holiday, Díario de Notícias reports. Portuguese Business Association (AEP) president Luís Miguel Ribeiro said some sectors were more prepared to continue in telework than others and there was no one model that would work for all. But one thing, he said, was for sure: “the country cannot return to a lockdown like the one we lived through. It would be disastrous.”
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In brief
Tourism is recovering faster in Porto than in Lisbon. Alojamento Local bookings are slowly increasing in both cities but still down 38.8% from this time last year in Porto and 51.2% in Lisbon (Diário de Notícias)
Bushfires: almost 100 municipalities in 14 districts at maximum risk. The worst-affected districts are Viana do Castelo, Braga, Porto, Vila Real, Bragança, Aveiro, Viseu, Coimbra, Leiria, Guarda, Castelo Branco, Santarém, Portalegre and Faro (Público)
This summer, it was the Portuguese who filled the country with motorhomes. Some businesses saw their clients jump 250%. At the end of August, between 5,000 and 10,000 motorhomes were circulating on Portuguese roads, mostly in the southwest of the Alentejo and on the Vincentian coast.
On a lighter note
Jéssica Silva started out kicking oranges, loquats and newspaper wrapped in adhesive tape, Diário de Notícias reported. On August 30, she became the first Portuguese woman to win the Champions League, the highest prize in club football. She didn’t start playing until 15 but 10 years later is one of the first names on the team sheet for French club Lyon, arguably the best women’s football team in the world. Unfortunately, she watched the final from the bench due to a serious injury but said she still felt part of the win.
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