Big week for vaccine and December restrictions news // Top health official infected with covid-19
Portuguese news in English on December 2, 2020.
By the numbers
Well we’ve reached 300,000 confirmed cases, which is roughly 3% of the population. Interestingly, that undeniably bleak milestone came yesterday along with the fewest new confirmed cases since October 20. In more good news, the past three days have the fewest confirmed cases since the start of November and there are roughly the same amount of people in hospital and the ICU today as two days ago. However, it was a long weekend and the start of the week so if our previous experience with these figures is anything to go by, the numbers will likely get worse throughout the week.
Source: DGS
Big week for vaccine and December restrictions news
By the end of this week, we should know a lot more about what the next few months will look like in Portugal, including the possible arrival of the first vaccines on New Year’s Day. Tomorrow will be particularly busy, as experts meet with politicians to discuss the evolution of the pandemic in great detail and the national vaccination plan is announced, Diário de Notícias reports. Prime Minister António Costa says pandemic restrictions for the rest of December, including Christmas and NYE, will be announced on Saturday. Mr Costa said he didn’t want to pre-empt the restrictions but assured us New Year’s Eve parties were off the table and Christmas would not be “normal”.
The UK has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for a rollout starting next week, the Guardian reports in English. The European Medicines Agency is still analysing applications from Pfizer and another drug company, Moderna, but the European Commission expects to be able to authorise at least one of them “within a matter of days”, Diário de Notícias reports. Pfizer Portugal medical director Susana Castro Marques told RTP the first vials of vaccine should arrive in Portugal three days after EMA approval, which is predicted to be on December 29.
Don’t forget the local travel ban is back again this weekend in very high and extreme risk council areas. More information here in my November 22 newsletter.
Top health official infected with covid-19
Director-General of Health Graça Freitas has tested positive to covid-19, Diário de Notícias reports. The Directorate-General of Health said the key pandemic response official had displayed light symptoms since Tuesday and was in isolation. DGS is tracing the 63-year-old’s contacts, which include Health Minister Marta Temido and Deputy Health Minister António Lacerda Sales, who both went into isolation. Ms Temido tested negative and Mr Lacerda Sales was still awaiting his result.
Deputy Health Minister corrects school cluster stats
I have to correct something I wrote last month about outbreaks in schools but thankfully it’s good news. Deputy Health Minister António Lacerda Sales said earlier this month there were 477 covid-19 clusters in schools. It turns out the correct number was 68 but he had wrongly given the total number of outbreaks for the entire country, Diário de Notícias reports. According to the Deputy Minister, 50 of those school clusters are in Lisbon and the Tejo Valley, three in the North, 11 in the Centre, two in the Algarve and two in the Alentejo. While you saw on Monday that teachers were concerned about getting sick at work, he said there didn't appear to be a great intensity of outbreaks in schools. The role of schools in spreading the virus is not yet fully understood but the European Centre for Disease Control says “school outbreaks are not a prominent feature of the COVID-19 pandemic”. That FAQ is worth a read if you have questions.
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In brief
Vale Eduardo Lourenço (1923-2020). Portugal’s greatest essayist of the 20th century has died, aged 97. O Labirinto da Saudade (Saudade’s Labyrinth) earned great acclaim and turned him into a great thinker in service of the nation but it was with poets that he felt most at home. (Público)
Prime Minister António Costa asks for end to restaurant industry ‘impasse’. Several restaurant and nightlife business owners have gone on hunger strike outside the Assembly of the Republic, demanding to be heard. But the PM said the government was already speaking with the group and highlighted a new program that had received 26,000 applications, with financial aid reaching €750 million.
More deaths and less births leave Portugal with the lowest natural population growth this century. There have been fewer births than deaths for 10 years in a row but if this year’s birth and death rates continue as expected this year’s figure will be the lowest since the Spanish flu in 1918.
On a lighter note
Web Summit opens today, although with a lot less fanfare than normal. Público reports 100,000 people have access to the online platform, with tickets starting from €219, but there are also a bunch of short sessions available for free on the summit’s YouTube channel. They’ve been showing the Centre channel today, which you can find the schedule for here but I can’t guarantee that will be the same over the following days. Guests include tennis star Serena Williams, actors Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston and TikTok vice president Blake Chandlee.
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