The slow reopening begins but life is a long way from ‘normal’
English language coronavirus news in Portugal on May 4, 2020.
By the numbers
It was a very positive but slightly strange weekend for the statistics, as the number of confirmed cases (sort of) went down on Saturday. The health services discovered 422 cases in the North region had been counted twice and had to readjust the figures to take them into account. That meant Saturday’s report featured less cases than Friday’s had before the adjustment. Authorities only picked up another 92 cases - a 0.37% increase and the smallest since March - on Sunday before today’s slightly larger increase. Unfortunately,patients are still dying at a fairly steady rate of between 15 and 20 a day, which is a small improvement from numbers in the mid 20s to high 30s for much of last month.
‘While there’s COVID, there won’t be life as normal’
The state of emergency is over and the first of three stages of reopening is under way. But I just want to quickly repeat that today shouldn’t be treated like the “end of quarantine”, as some people are saying or a return to life as normal. The state of emergency has been replaced by a state of calamity (hardly less serious-sounding, right?) and the changes coming in today really are fairly minor. You can read more here and here if you missed the last two emails. Some more small shops are open today and you have a few more excuses to leave the house but restaurants (at half capacity) can’t reopen until May 18 and cinemas (also with restrictions) won’t return until June 1. Many more restrictions will remain in place after that date.
The reasons you may leave the house may have broadened slightly, but everyone who lives here - not just older people - has a “civic duty” to stay inside, as Público further explains. As Prime Minister António Costa said, everyone has to take personal responsibility for staying home unless necessary and must continue to keep their distance physically. “While there’s COVID, there won’t be life as normal,” he said, as reported by Público. The PM added that the virus remained in Portugal and this minor reopening would increase the risk of it spreading.
Masks or face shields? The answer is clear
I don’t know about you but I’ve seen a lot of people rocking face shields or visors on the street. They’ve been touted as an important additional measure for healthcare workers (New York Times) but if it comes down to a choice, various experts tell Público a mask is more appropriate. Asked on Monday, Director-General of Health Graça Freitas agreed anyone wearing a face shield also needed to wear a mask, because the visors didn’t block the mouth very well. But first, she reiterated the most important things to do, regardless of whether you're wearing a mask or not. Keep your physical distance, wash your hands and practise good respiratory hygiene (CDC). She reminded people not to fiddle with their masks, because the hands are the most common way the virus is transmitted. Wearing a mask is compulsory in shops and on public transport, where there is a fine of up to €350.
In brief
May 13 is the anniversary of the day three children apparently saw an apparition near what’s now the Portuguese town of Fátima. This year, there will be no pilgrims for the first time since 1917. Instead there will be a pilgrimage “of the heart” online
Most of Europe has passed the peak of COVID-19 cases. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says Bulgaria is the only country still worsening. In English, Reuters writes that the UK, Poland, Romania and Sweden have seen “no substantial changes in the last 14 days”
A lab has discovered an antibody that blocks the virus. Bloomberg has more information here in English. And the original study is here in Nature Communications
On a lighter note
One of Spain’s deputy Prime Ministers has an interesting (widely ridiculed) theory about why Portugal has controlled the virus more successfully than her own country, Diário de Notícias reports. The virus, Teresa Ribeira said, came from the east while Portugal is “a little more to the west and so they could stop a little earlier”. She also pointed out Portugal’s political forces and general society were “more united”. But it was relating the virus’s progression to geography that shocked critics, who were quick to point out Greece (just to name one country further east) had only 14 deaths per million residents, much less than Spain (540) and indeed Portugal (102).