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These positions were defended by António Costa in an interview with journalist Miguel Sousa Tavares in Jornal das 8 on TVI, during which he reiterated that the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, has strengthened political confidence and maintained that, until now, the SNS ” nothing has failed “in response to covid-19.
“If we can control the situation, as we have at the moment – where we practically still have a capacity of half of the intensive care beds assigned to COVID-19 – if we can control the pandemic now, we will be able to live without disruptive dramas,” he said. .
In the interview, the executive leader rejected that his government has any ideological prejudice and, therefore, does not resort to more contracting with the proven and social sectors.
According to the data presented by the Prime Minister in relation to the response capacity of the SNS, without the need to proceed with any discontinuity of other medical activity, there are 704 beds for intensive care, 433 of which are occupied. With the interruption of other medical activities, it can reach 944.
“We are executing a series of works in several hospitals (cases of Évora, Amadora / Sintra and Gaia) to increase capacity. When the pandemic began, Portugal was the country in the European Union with the fewest intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants. We will reach March 2021, a year after the pandemic, having gone from last place, to the average of the European Union ”, he said.
Asked if the Covid-19 situation was already out of control in Portugal, António Costa made use of a graph to show how he is today “in a much more serious situation from the point of view of the pandemic than we were in. the beginning of the first state of emergency “. .
“We are at that moment where we are still able to control. Today we have exactly twice as many hospitalized people as we had in the worst moment of the first wave, but we have not yet been in a situation of rupture because fortunately it has been possible to increase the response and reception capacity in the SNS, however, “he said. the first Minister.
Regarding the ability to prepare for this second wave of the pandemic, the government official said that what could have happened happened, which is “the increase in the response capacity”, citing the increase in the service capacity of the SNS24 line, from beds to hospitalization and the number of tests to Covid-19, among others.
Still, the prime minister said that, “like all other countries in Europe, no one predicted that this second wave would emerge so soon” anticipating that it would only occur “in the transition from autumn to winter.”
“If you ask me if I am surprised by this significant growth in the broadcasting community, I am very surprised,” admitted António Costa, noting, however, that it was not about not having been warned, but that he felt that “people in their The whole did not react as easily as in the past. “
In this context, Miguel Sousa Tavares asked António Costa if the Government did not sufficiently scare people about the seriousness of the situation.
“Maybe. Do you think so? I don’t know. You know it’s very difficult here, we’re too scared or too scared, whether people are conscious or not,” he replied.
Precisely for this reason, the Prime Minister returned the tone of the discussion to individual action.
“As the order of the doctors said yesterday, this situation is only controllable if we manage to control it before entering the NHS, that is, at the stage in which it is up to each one of us and only us, to stop the chains of transmission. , and that implies great rigor and discipline for everyone ”, said Costa.
Regarding the measures to limit circulation on weekends and at night, the Prime Minister recalled that 68% of infections occur in the family, because “people feel safe” and they lower their defenses, that “greatly increases the transmission process ”. According to António Costa, some of the main sources of transmission during the summer were the social events that follow weddings, confirmations, baptisms and even “big family lunches on Sundays.”
“As we do not want to have the means to control what happens in each of the houses, the way we have to break these movements is to prevent circulation,” said the Prime Minister, adding that “The only way to control this pandemic is maximum isolation and individual protection “and that” it is not possible to contain the pandemic without disturbing the lives of people and the economy. “
The Government will approve this week a specific line of support for restoration
In this interview, which coincided with the first day of the state of emergency, the prime minister acknowledged that the restoration has been hit hard from an economic point of view and said that the measures already taken by his executive last week, with a value around of 1.550 million euros, are largely non-refundable and are aimed at micro and small businesses, many of them catering.
“Now we are going to announce this week a specific package to support catering companies with respect to what they are going to lose in revenue over the next two weekends,” said the executive leader.
According to António Costa, the “electronic invoice” of the Portal das Finanças allows to know what the recipe of each restaurant is, either during the last year, or during the last weekend when data is available.
Therefore, we can know what is the income that each one has and that theoretically they will lose. We will take the average (it may be the average for the year, it may only be the month of October), but the criterion is not fixed ”, he warned.
That is, according to the Prime Minister, for the granting of support, the Government, through the electronic invoice, will know what the recipe is for each of the restaurants, “because it is not the same.”
“There are restaurants that bill mainly on weekends and there are other restaurants that even close on weekends, especially in the more service areas,” he justified.
António Costa also said that the executive has estimated “what are the fixed costs that these companies have.”
“We also know, among those who have fixed costs, those who are already being supported by the dismissal measures. As for the others, we can establish specific support to mitigate the losses of these two weekends,” he added, without further consulting details of this measure.
Still in this specific line of economic support, António Costa added that he will speak with the hospitality associations throughout this week and defended that this sector has a different situation in relation to the hospitality or clothing stores, because in restaurants the loss from closing. “is absolute”.
Regarding the state of emergency, the Prime Minister took the opportunity to clarify that “there is no limitation to circulation between cities in this period.”
“There is an obligation not to circulate at certain times of the day,” he replied.
Costa hopes Joe Biden will return to transatlantic relations and multilateralism
“I am hopeful that with the election of Joe Biden the transatlantic relationship can be reborn, which is particularly important for a country like Portugal, precisely with the Atlantic dimension provided by the autonomous regions, having a unique relationship with the United States of America. America in the heart of Europe, that is why I think it is an opportunity ”, he said.
For António Costa, “both the relationship between Europe and the United States, and the fact that Joe Biden said that on the first day of his mandate he will return to the Paris Agreement, obviously encourages everyone who understands that the changes are even the most high priority for the livelihood of mankind. “
“When Joe Biden says he wants to do a great world convention for the defense of democracy, the fight against corruption, totalitarianism, for the promotion of human rights, that is good news. When [Joe Biden] wants to resume a multilateral vision – and we hope that the United States will return to the World Health Organization (WHO) – I think this is good news for the world, “added the prime minister.
