Health authorities consider relaxing more restrictions // What’s happening with the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron?
Portuguese news in English on Saturday, February 26, 2022.
By the numbers
Everything is still going in exactly the right direction. The daily case number average is almost half what it was when we last spoke and there are almost 600 fewer people with COVID-19 in hospital. There’s good news, too, when it comes to ICU numbers and deaths. There are almost 40 fewer people in intensive care than last Friday and the average number of daily deaths is slowly creeping down too, below 40 for the first time this month.
Health authorities consider relaxing more restrictions
The pandemic rule changes I told you about last week came into force on Saturday and Wednesday but health authorities are already considering more changes, Público reports. Health Minister Marta Temido on Wednesday said she expected changes to mask-wearing in schools and isolation for people with COVID-19 at the end of this week or early next. Scrapping masks in schools was a possibility, she said, while isolation periods could be reduced, first for asymptomatic patients and then even for those with symptoms. For now, household contacts of people with COVID-19 are being asked to take two rapid antigen tests within about three to four days, instead of being forced to isolate. Daily deaths are expected to drop low enough (fewer than 20 per million per fortnight) to drop all remaining restrictions by April 3, Público reports.
The online vaccine portal is open for children 5-11 to get their first or second jab this Saturday and Sunday, while all adults who haven’t had COVID-19 in the past 150 days can book their booster or just turn up to their local vaccination centre or health centre. The current vaccination model is changing, with dozens of vaccination centres set to start closing from Tuesday, shifting the focus to health centres.
What’s happening with the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron?
The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron makes up 42.5% of cases analysed by Portuguese scientists, Público reports. The World Health Organisation on Tuesday said, in English, that the sublineage, while seemingly more transmissible, didn’t appear to cause more severe illness in several studies carried out in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Denmark. It said cases of people who had recently been sick with the BA.1 lineage (we’ll just call this “normal Omicron) getting reinfected with BA.2 had been documented. But studies suggested BA.1 provides “strong protection against reinfection with BA.2”.
Portugal to welcome Ukrainian refugees
I’ll be quick with this because there are infinite English-language news sources for Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Prime Minister António Costa said embassies in Ukraine and neighbouring countries had been told to grant visas immediately, while the government worked to find job opportunities, Lusa reported. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the country’s complete availability to welcome any Ukrainians wanting to live here. He said Portugal would be sending 174 troops to Romania (not Ukraine, in line with other NATO countries) in the coming weeks and had hundreds more available for NATO missions.
The New York Times reports, in English, that big spikes in gas bills can be expected in Europe, which gets nearly 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia. Dinheiro Vivo says Portugal shouldn’t be hit as hard, for now at least, as it hasn’t imported gas from Russia since October 2021, Environment Minister João Matos Fernandes tells the publisher it’s “inevitable” prices will rise because gas is a commodity sold on the global market. Fuel prices are expected to soar this coming week in Portugal on the back of a big surge in oil prices, Diáirio de Notícias reports.
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In brief
Number of free rapid antigen tests to drop from four a month to two.The change takes place in March. (Lusa)
Mandatory quarantine foisted on thousands of arrivals in Portugal outside of state of emergency found to be unconstitutional. After the Constitutional Court decided forcing classmates to isolate during the state of calamity (for some reason lower than state of emergency) was illegal, it made a similar ruling for thousands forced to quarantine after coming from countries with high infection rates. (Público)
Towing begins after salvage team boards burnt ship with luxury cars off Azores, towing begins. The ship is carrying about 4000 cars and the fire is predicted to cost insurers as much as €137 million. (Reuters, in English)
Fight over Netflix filming in the centre of Lisbon. Mayor Carlos Moedas argued in favour of the filming, the Santa Maria Maior freguesia (parish) complained about the impact on residences of a production set to shoot eight nights and two days in Baixa, Chiado and Mouraria.
On a lighter note
A Portuguese company has come up with a genuinely useful way to recycle your disposable masks. ToBeGreen, from Albergaria-a-Velha in the Aveiro region, saved 50,000 masks from going to landfill in 2021, Público reports. The company, which focuses on cutting down textile waste and swapping second-hand clothes, instead turned the face coverings into coat hangers and Christmas decorations. The rest of the project is pretty interesting too; drop off your old clothes at one of the company’s collection points and you’ll get credit to use to buy other clothes that have been discarded. Even ruined clothes that can only be salvaged for their materials are worth a few points.
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