UK variant ‘likely’ to be more deadly // Government wants 1.4 million vaccinated by end of April
Portuguese news in English on Monday, February 15.
By the numbers
The latest figures appear to show the lockdown having a major effect on pretty much every pandemic indicator. Apart from the lowest number of new cases since Christmas, there were 1300 fewer covid-19 patients in Portuguese hospitals yesterday than the previous Sunday and the number of ICU patients finally dipped below 800 for the first time since January. I don’t even really have any bad news to share on that front except to point out that all of those numbers are still super high.
The renewed state of emergency kicked in at midnight today with all the same rules as the previous period, and the one before it except for supermarkets etc being able to sell books.
UK variant ‘likely’ to be more deadly
Bad news on the UK variant front. Scientists now believe it is “likely” more deadly, as well as more contagious, the New York Times reports. British government scientists are still trying to understand why that may be and figure out how much the increased death associated with the new variant can be pinned on its ability to spread easily through high-risk settings such as nursing homes. The overall picture is one of something like a 40 to 60 percent increase in hospitalization risk, and risk of death,” epidemiologist and government scientific adviser Neil Ferguson said. But the scientists gave only a 55–75% confidence in their finding. In Portugal, that variant was responsible for 43% of new cases recently sequenced by the national health institute, up from 16% in early January, Diário de Notícias reports. The majority of cases came from a Spanish variant not associated with any increased infectiousness, hospitalisation or death and the South African variant was detected in two cases and we await confirmation on whether two other cases are from the Brazilian variant. You can read the full British government paper here and an explainer on variants from Al Jazeera in English if you’re understandably confused.
Government wants 1.4 million vaccinated by end of April
More than half a million vaccine doses have been administered in Portugal and the government plans to have 1.4 million citizens and residents vaccinated by the start of April, Público reports. The goal remains to have 70% of the adult population vaccinated by the end of summer, something Prime Minister António Costa said should be made possible by a more consistent supply of vaccines later in the year. The country this week reached a new vaccination peak, with a weekly average of 18,206 people vaccinated per day, Público reports. Authorities say that figure is constrained by the number of doses available, not by local capacity.
Some immigrant students virtually excluded from classrooms
Some Portuguese schools are leaving immigrants awaiting residency permits without support or even a computer to learn from home, Público reports. Schools can’t refuse to teach students whose families are waiting on an interview with the Immigration and Borders Service (SEF) but the lack of support is leaving some effectively shut out of the virtual classroom. Daniel, a 14-year-old from Guiné-Bissau; Jessica, a 10-year-old São Toméan (not their real names); and dozens of others have been left trying to listen to lessons through a mobile phone. That means no access to Google Classroom or many of the other essential tools used in this new phase of remote learning. The government has clarified that any student waiting for SEF is eligible for school social action support but many have still been left without support.
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In brief
New Zealand's biggest city enters three-day lockdown after three community cases discovered. The approach has become commonplace in cities across Australia when dealing with isolated cases escaping from the strict hotel quarantine system. (ABC News Australia)
Pfizer and Moderna testing vaccines on kids. They hope to have trial results by the end of the summer for the new age group, 12 and older. (New York Times)
Hospital head welcomes 'very significant' drop in new cases but warns against a fast reopening. Santa Maria Hospital clinical director Luís Pinheiro warns a slow, phased reopening is essential to avoid a return to cases rising at the same rate as earlier this year. (Público)
On a lighter note
If all the baking, cooking, cleaning and exercising in the world isn’t enough to make the long winter lockdown tolerable, then it might be worth giving gardening a try. Or at least reading this quite lovely New York times piece about the joy one lady was able to get out of her plants. There’s probably no need to get quite as into it as she is but this Diário de Notícias piece has some good tips and the names of a few places to buy plants, seeds or seedlings (I’m assuming they deliver at the moment).
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