The Health Minister has warned of "a worsening" of the Covid-19 pandemic in Portugal last week, adding that this scenario "was somehow expected" and follows the European situation.
"The epidemiological situation in the country over the last week has worsened, this worsening follows what the European situation is," said Marta Temido, at the press conference held after the Council of Ministers, where it was decided to prolong the State of Alert until November 30th.
The government official also said that estimates and analysis of epidemiological modeling carried out by the National Institute of Healths' Doctor Ricardo Jorge, point to us having 1,300 confirmed cases on November 7th, if the current risk of transmission is maintained.
The minister explained that, in the last week, the cumulative incidence rate is at 94 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, “an incidence rate that is below what is today's average registered in other countries of the European Union, which is 235 cases per 100,000 inhabitants”.
According to Marta Temido, this incidence has been increasing “in line with the risk of effective transmission, and now stands at 1.08”.
"What was somehow the expected scenario due to the transmission of the disease is being confirmed, although in a context in which a large majority of the population is vaccinated", she said, adding that 85.9% of the Portuguese population is vaccinated against full covid-19.
Justifying the maintenance of the alert situation, the minister stressed that, despite this favourable context, "the virus continues to transmit and circulate and, although causing less serious disease and less significant fatal consequences, to a greater circulation of the virus tends to correspond to a greater number of cases of disease”.
The minister also underlined that new containment measures or eventual adaptations of the current ones “will be made if necessary in due time and always with careful analysis” of the defined reference framework, which at this moment “is only for the growth of transmission”.
Marta Temido explained that the monitoring of the epidemiological situation was defined through a risk analysis published weekly and the latest indicators, of October 22, showed that “the risk remained at a moderate to reduced level”.
"At the level of incidence, what we define as a reduced risk level is below 120 and we are still below 120. At the level of effective risk of transmission, the reference level is 1 and we are above that value," she said, noting that there are some signs of concern about the amount of people testing positivite, which is on the rise.
However, she stressed that the remaining indicators are stable, with “a stabilisation in the use of health care for covid-19”, in the use of inpatient and intensive care units, and in the amount of deaths being caused.
“However, we have to bear in mind that there are several worrying contextual factors, such as the European situation, cold temperatures to come, prevalance of respiratory diseases associated with cold weather, a greater tendency for people to gather in less airy spaces,” she said.
In this sense, the minister called for the respect for a set of rules to be maintained, namely the maintenance of the use of masks in closed spaces and environments, the maintenance of not attending or not staying for a long time in overcrowded spaces and concern for aeration of the physical spaces.
Marta Temida also indicated that the General Directorate of Health and the Ministry of Health will soon publicise information campaigns to draw people's attention to this need, clealry stating what the updated regulations will be.
In Portugal, since March 2020, 18,144 people have died and 1,087,245 cases of infection have been recorded, according to data from the General Directorate of Health.
On Wednesday, there were a further 965 confirmed cases of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, three deaths associated with covid-19 and a further increase in ward admissions to 316 people.
Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
