PM calls for vaccination to start on January 5 // EU agrees on €1.8 trillion budget and recovery deal
Portuguese news in English on December 11, 2020.
By the numbers
More covid-19 patients have died today than any other in the pandemic so far. New confirmed cases have also crept back up above 5000 today but there were only 3134 yesterday and the average is still trending downwards. According to the European Centre for Disease Control’s weekly report, Portugal has the seventh highest per capita rate in the region (609.8), behind Luxembourg (1181.8), Croatia (1154.1), Lithuania (1070.4), Slovenia (984.7), Hungary (774.2), Liechtenstein (747.8), Sweden (713.8) and Austria (647.1).
Source: DGS
Reminder: It’s our first weekend of relative freedom in a few weeks, meaning we can travel out of our local council areas. Anyone living in council with a very high or extreme covid-19 transmission risk (that’s Lisbon, Almada, Loures, most of the North and about half of the Centre but not Oeiras, Cascais or anywhere in the Algarve) will still have to be home by 1pm. More details in last Sunday’s newsletter or from Público (in Portuguese).
PM calls for vaccination to start on January 5
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has called for every European Union country to start its vaccination campaign on the same day: January 5, Lusa reports. The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the Pfizer vaccine on December 29 and the Moderna vaccine on January 12 but Mr Costa argues countries should coordinate to aim for herd immunity on an EU scale. Questioned over whether Portugal would be able to start vaccinating on that date, he said the 5th was an “excellent day”, being the second working day of the year, that the vaccine plan was “properly articulated” and the logistics chain “identified” and “designed". The armed forces will play a crucial role in vaccine distribution, he says. The BBC reports in English that a cyber attack on the EMA in which documents relating to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were accessed is not expected to impact the vaccine approval timeline.
The latest figures from the ECDC are available here for the region as a whole and here for Portugal.
EU agrees on €1.8 trillion budget and recovery deal
The European Union’s 27 member states have come to an agreement to pass the €1.8 trillion seven-year budget and coronavirus recovery fund, The Guardian reports. Hungary and Poland had threatened to block the deal, which brings with it billions of aid money for Portugal and other EU countries, over a clause tying funds to rule-of-law conditions. The two countries’ leaders eventually agreed to the deal on the assurance the conditions would only relate to future spending.
‘Urgent analysis’ of excess deaths data needed
There are calls for an “urgent analysis” of Portugal’s excess deaths data after the National Statistics Institute released figures showing the number of deaths since the start of the pandemic more than 10,000 above average, Dinheiro Vivo reports. At first glance, the data appear to show 41,8% of those excess deaths attributed to covid-19 until November and then 95.3% in November. But the institute warns the data could not be analysed simplistically, an opinion shared by Portuguese Association of Public Health Doctors president when it comes to the November data. He says a likely decrease in other respiratory deaths thanks to mask wearing and social distancing needs to be taken into account, among other factors. Doctor and former Shared Services Ministry of Health leader Henrique Martins called for an “urgent analysis” of the figures.
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In brief
Portugal to compensate family of Ukrainian allegedly murdered in SEF facility. Home Affairs Minister Eduardo Cabrita, who said what happened to the Ukrainian was “absolutely unacceptable”, retains the confidence of the Prime Minister. (Público)
How the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Works. A very useful explainer from the New York Times.
Portugal's TAP needs up to €2.5 billion to cover funding needs, govt says. Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos told a news conference TAP would also need to cut around 2,000 jobs by 2022 as part of a restructuring plan. (Reuters, in English)
British PM and EU say Brexit trade deal unlikely by Sunday (BBC, in English)
On a lighter note
Christmas is getting really close now and I’m guessing a lot of us are going to be spending it away from our family. But that doesn’t mean we have to miss out on the chance for a Portuguese Christmas feast in our own home. Whether it’s bacalhau (you know you want it), turkey, goat, or French toast (yep, apparently it’s traditional), Time Out has you covered with a list of 11 restaurants accepting Christmas orders.
Please keep sharing on Facebook, in real life or anywhere else you see people a bit confused by the latest news.