New Year’s Eve effectively cancelled // Tens of thousands to be vaccinated by the end of January
Portuguese news in English on December 18, 2020.
By the numbers
Fewer covid-19 patients have died today than any day since December 9. Case numbers are still dropping but, as you’ll see below, not as fast as the government had predicted. The number of people in hospital has also fallen consistently almost all week and there are fewer covid-19 patients in intensive care than any other day since mid-November.
New Year’s Eve effectively cancelled
The government has pulled the “handbrake” on any form of New Year’s Eve celebrations, introducing new restrictions thanks to case numbers not slowing as quickly as hoped, Público reports. A curfew will kick in across the entire country — not just high-risk councils — from 11pm on New Year’s Eve and from 1pm on January 1, 2 and 3. On top of this, apart from limited exceptions for things such as work and healthcare, no one can leave their municipality (Lisbon, Oeiras, Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Matosinhos, Faro, Lagos etc) between December 31 to January 4.
Christmas is still on amid pleas for caution
Prime Minister António Costa — who is in self-isolation after being in close contact with French President Emmanuel Macron but has so far tested negative — said the restrictions for Christmas remained the same as when they were announced in early December. (See my December 7 newsletter for a rundown of the Christmas rules but ignore what it says about New Year’s Eve). He said the number of daily cases had not been dropping as quickly as predicted and warned Christmas would cause an increase in infections, no matter how much care was taken. He pleaded with everyone to gather as few people as possible to celebrate Christmas, wear masks for the maximum amount of time and spend less time together at the table than normal. A prominent restaurant and hotels association complained about the changing restrictions, saying some restaurants were already making preparations for New Year’s Eve dinner, Público reported.
The state of emergency has been renewed until January 7 without changes, you can find the national measures in place in this November newsletter and a list here of the councils in order of moderate risk (risco moderado), high risk (risco elevado), very high risk (risco muito elevado) and extreme risk (risco extremamente elevado) here. I’ve also included the latest English graphic below but some of the dates have obviously already passed.
139,000 to be vaccinated by the end of January
The national vaccination plan has been finalised, with the first small batch of vaccines to be delivered between December 24 and 27 and the first jabs to take place on December 27, Diário de Notícias reports. That first lot of 9750 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which are going to health professionals, is merely symbolic, National Vaccination Plan coordinator Francisco Ramos tells Diário de Notícias. But another 312,975 doses should arrive in the country on January 4 and 5. Bearing in mind the Pfizer vaccine (and most of the other prominent ones) requires two doses, the government says that will allow 139,000 people — 21,000 health professionals and 118,000 aged care residents and workers — to be vaccinated by the end of January. This is all assuming the European Medicines Agency approves the vaccine as expected on December 21. It should finish its evaluation of the Moderna vaccine on January 12, so if all goes well Portugal is expecting a total of 429,000 doses from both companies combined to arrive in February and another 487,500 in March. That will leave us a long way short of the 950,000 people the government was hoping to have vaccinated by the end of March. A communication campaign and a helpline are planned to help educate people about the vaccines and vaccination process.
If you want to help keep this newsletter going, please think about subscribing. Thank you so much to everyone who has done so already.
In brief
Four years waiting for SEF. José Vieira, from São Tomé and Príncipe, has already paid more than €6000 in social security but isn’t even allowed to leave the country. (Público)
PM nominates former National Guard commander-general to reform SEF (Diário de Notícias)
The pandemic has robbed hotels of €2.2 billion. Guest numbers fell from 23.8 million to 9.6 million compared to January to October last year. (Diário de Notícias)
Zoom lifts 40-minute call limit on free accounts at Christmas (The Guardian)
On a lighter note
In “a galaxy far far away” (but somehow it’s still Earth), it’s Christmas Eve and everyone is waiting for Santa Claus. That’s the idea behind his year’s Christmas message from the Assembly of the Republic, Christmas 2020: The Friends Strike Back. The friends include, according to Público, Democracy, the Constitution and Jubas the lion, who seems to pull double duty as a mascot for Parliament and the Sporting football club. Anyway, they have to stop Darth Corona from getting to Santa’s sleigh (or spaceship, if you will) and save Christmas, particularly because the jolly man’s big belly and white beard would seem to put him in a high-risk group for covid-19. Hey, I never said it was a blockbuster, but at least it’s something different! Oh I almost forgot, Yoda is in quarantine so I guess maybe Luke had the rona while they were training on Dagobah?
Please keep sharing on Facebook, in real life or anywhere else you see people a bit confused by the latest news.