Portugal now eighth-worst in Europe for new cases // More help for working parents, students forced to turn on webcams
Portuguese news in English on Friday, February 19, 2021.
Important announcement: From March onwards, I’ll be sending out a weekly update, plus a wrap of any major changes to restrictions on the day they’re announced. I could try to spin this as a way for you guys to cut down on information overload but that’s not the reason at all. I’m starting a new full-time job on March 1 so I’m just not going to have the time to do this three times a week. I know this is a lot less than what you’ve come to expect. So, particularly for my paid subscribers who I appreciate more than I can say, I completely understand if you wish to change your subscriptions.
By the numbers
Things are still looking pretty positive. Fewer people are dying every day, overflowing hospital wards and ICUs are continuing to empty out and we’re even seeing cases continue to fall throughout the week. In the months before the second lockdown we’d become used to a pretty consistent rhythm of cases dipping on Monday (thanks to less testing over the weekend) and climbing steadily throughout the week.
Portugal now eighth-worst in Europe for new cases
Portugal has dropped from the worst-affected European country to the eighth-worst on the back of a halving of the number of new cases thanks to lockdown, Público reports. The latest European Centre for Disease Control figures showed Portugal’s 14-day new case average per 100,000 people had dropped from 1212 last week to 589 this week. Most of the countries faring worse than Portugal have populations of less than a million people, Czechia (968.13 cases) being the only country of a similar size being hit harder. Epidemiologist Manuel Carmo Gomes said the lockdown measures were the only explanation for the rapid turnaround. Testing has also just about halved but there’s no indication that’s being considered as the reason for the drop in case numbers. Rapid testing has begun rolling out in schools, with 50 cases detected from 16,000 tests, Público reports. Education Minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues used the results to repeat the line that schools are safe and that a return to in-person learning should be a priority.
Portugal pushed to help increase vaccine production
There is a lot of vaccine and study news around today so I’ll rush through it all pretty briefly. The European Commission is pushing Portugal to use its six-month presidency of the European Union to accelerate vaccine production, Lusa reports. The Commission’s strategy is a mix of updating and reaching new vaccine purchase agreements and helping pharma companies and manufacturers work together to increase production. Up to 90 people will be deliberately exposed to the coronavirus in the UK next month as part of a newly approved trial aimed at learning more about the Sars-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, covid-19, Wired reports. The “human challenge” trial is a collaboration between respected organisations such as Imperial College London and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. A Portuguese study found less than half of former covid-19 patients still had immunity 10 months on, but with much higher antibody counts among older people and those who suffered severe infection, Lusa reports.
More help for working parents and students forced to turn on webcams
There is lots of news for schools too. The exceptional family assistance package, through Social Security (Segurança Social), has been broadened to include parents of young children working from home, Público reports. Hundreds of state-supplied computers will provide students with unlimited internet access, but the speed may be cut drastically after they’ve used 12GB of data, Público reports. Teachers will be able to demand students turn their camera on during lessons, following complaints about the difficulty of teaching to a black screen during the first lockdown, Público reports. Families already receiving government-subsidised electricity rates will be able to access a similar internet deal by June, again, via Público.
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In brief
President sends euthanasia decriminalisation law to Constitutional Court. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he was not asking the court to decide whether euthanasia itself was constitutional but to consider parts of the specific law he considered too vague. (Público)
The Recovery and Resilience Plan is open for public consultation. If you’re a citizen, you can have your say on the plan to spend billions of EU money.
Shadow of opposition party's former leader looms over upcoming congress. Potential challengers to Social Democratic Party president Rui Rio await news on whether or not former leader Pedro Passos Coelho will run. (Público)
From next month, Lisbon will have a sensor network to monitor air quality, noise and traffic (Público)
On a lighter note
We’re one step closer to answering David Bowie’s decades-old question: “Rebel rebel, how could they know?” Sorry, I mean: “Is there life on Mars?” NASA’s biggest and most advanced rover yet has touched down on Mars after a month-long journey of almost half a billion kilometres. Perseverance is expected to spend about two years studying the Jezero Crater’s geology and past climate and *drumroll* searching for signs of ancient microbial life. “Perseverance is the most sophisticated robotic geologist ever made, but verifying that microscopic life once existed carries an enormous burden of proof,” NASA planetary science division director Lori Glaze said. “While we’ll learn a lot with the great instruments we have aboard the rover, it may very well require the far more capable laboratories and instruments back here on Earth to tell us whether our samples carry evidence that Mars once harboured life.”
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