Rent help measures extended // Hacking trial hears Rui Pinto's parents followed on trip to Hungary
Portuguese news in English on September 23, 2020.
By the numbers
With much lower daily case numbers yesterday (464, the fewest since September 8) and Monday I was really hoping we might have turned a corner. But it seems we were just seeing the standard start-of-the-week dip in confirmations because that number is back over 800 today. Hospitalisations and the amount of people in intensive care are both continuing their steady climb. Hospitalisations are still less than half what we saw in the April peak and ICU numbers are roughly a quarter but both figures tend to lag confirmed cases by a week or two so are likely to keep rising for some time.
Active, recovered, deaths, contacts under surveillance, confirmed, hospitalised, in ICU.
Rental assistance measures extended
The extraordinary rent assistance measures created to help deal with the pandemic will be extended until December, Diário de Notícias reports. They include restrictions on cancelling and the expiry of lease agreements. On a similar subject, anyone looking to apply for a credit moratorium, for business or personal loans, will have to act fast. The European Banking Agency has decided to suspend the exceptional regime currently in place, Público reports. Anyone already approved by the end of the month will continue to be covered until March next year. Essential services such as water and electricity can also be disconnected again from next week in the event of non-payment, Diário de Notícias reports. The changes come as the pandemic continues to have a serious effect on the property market, although not necessarily in the way you would expect. The number of house sales dropped 21.6% in the second quarter, according to National Statistics Institute figures published by Público, and the value of sales dropped 15.2% to €5.1 billion. Despite this break on sales, the Habitation Price Index still rose 7.8% from the same period last year.
First-half deficit hits 5.4%
The coronavirus pandemic has erased Portugal’s razor-thin 2019 budget surplus, leaving the country with a 5.4% deficit for the first half of this year, Público reports. That’s obviously a much worse result than the 1.2% surplus from the same period last year. But it’s not as bad as the 7% figure predicted by the Finance Ministry for the entirety of this year, down from 0.1% for the entire year of 2019. Public debt has hit almost 134% of GDP, Diário de Notícias reports
Alleged hacker’s parents followed on trip to Hungary
It took Portuguese police four years to find accused Football Leaks hacker Rui Pinto, an inspector told his trial, as reported by Público. The accused, facing more than 90 charges, shook his head furiously as inspector José Amador recounted the difficulties in finding him, which resulted in tracking his parents on a trip to Budapest in 2019. Since being detained in January of that year, Mr Pinto has insisted he was always available to speak to Portuguese authorities but they didn’t try to contact him. The trial earlier heard that a large bag of evidence was handed over to Portugal’s Judicial Police by Hungarian authorities. It was meant to contain 26 smaller bags but was missing two, which were said to hold cables. The seals on the individual bags had also been broken. The trial heard French authorities had accessed them and copied the contents of several hard drives after working with Hungary. Many of the hard drives are encrypted and remain inaccessible to authorities.
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In brief
How close is a coronavirus vaccine? This is a great wrap of everything that’s going on in the world of vaccines right now. Out of 300 candidates, nine are in phase 3 trials, with some hoping for emergency use approval this year (Financial Times in English)
Study models 'calendar' of Europe's second wave. It suggests the current growth in cases in Portugal should peak during the week of October 5-11, at the latest (Público) (original study in English here)
Portuguese opposition leader pushes back against minimum wage rise this year Social Democrat Party (PSD) Leader Rui Rio asked: “What’s the objective of lifting the minimum rate? To lift unemployment?” (Diário de Notícias)
Social Security made payments to a nursing home, which a court had decided to suspend. In 2015, it had 72 fewer workers than required by law but nobody knows how many it lacks now. Social Security threatened to suspend funding in 2015.
Please keep sharing on Facebook, in real life or anywhere else you see people a bit confused by the latest news.
On a lighter note
The world of Portuguese wine is so enormous it can be a little overwhelming but learning (and tasting!) more is so rewarding. This seems like the perfect opportunity: well-regarded British TV program The Wine Show is focusing on Portugal this season. According to Público, one of the wines from the Alentejo even moved actor James Purefoy to tears. The season itself will screen on Channel 5 in England but there’s a teaser coming up on the show’s YouTube channel on October 1, live at 7pm.