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The 18 cases of infection by the new strain of SARS-Cov-2, detected this week in Madeira, are still in the archipelago, where they are in isolation, according to the PUBLIC of the Madeira health authority. The isolation takes place, in some cases, in a dedicated hotel unit, and in others, in their own accommodation.
The cases, identified this week through the Madeira International Airport Screening Center, which collects samples from all passengers arriving in the autonomous region for testing, refer to Madeira emigrants in the United Kingdom, British tourists and a person from the Lisbon region. and the Tagus Valley.
All were indicated before December 20, when the Madeira Regional Health Directorate (DRS) sent a sample of some positive cases detected in the airport screening to the National Institute of Health, Doctor Ricardo Jorge, precisely to evaluate whether the new strain of coronavirus was in the archipelago.
“This identification was only possible thanks to the work carried out by the Detection Center of the Madeira International Airport, which allows the monitoring, identification and referral for the isolation of positive cases, when they are detected,” the office of the Regional Secretariat stressed to the PUBLIC Health and Civil Protection. repeating what had already been explained the day before, when the presence of the UK strain was announced in Madeira.
In addition to complying with the guidelines of the health authorities, the regional strategy, the same source continued, focuses on the surveillance of passengers arriving in Madeira. Anyone who has not had a negative test carried out less than 72 hours before the trip, in one of the laboratories recognized by the DRS, is obliged to carry out a test upon arrival in Funchal, including at the airport. After completing the isolation until the test result is known, which, on average, takes 12 hours.
If it is positive, as in these 18 cases, people remain isolated, either in a hotel unit contracted by the Madeira government specifically for these cases, or, powerlessly, in their own accommodation. They can only come out after a negative test.
In the last known balance, released this Monday at the end of the day, since the beginning of the pandemic, the autonomous community recorded 1,560 cases of covid-19 (49 more than the previous day), of which 517 are still active. Of them, 54 people are isolated in a dedicated hotel unit, 436 in their own accommodation and 27 people were hospitalized: 23 in the Multipurpose Unit of the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital and four in the Intensive Care Unit dedicated to covid-19. In Madeira, to date, there are a total of 12 deaths associated with this disease.
So far, the new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus identified in the United Kingdom, presented as the most contagious and which is worrying the world, has only been detected in Portugal in the Madeira region. Today, the DGS press conference will be attended by the coordinator of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic variability study and researcher at the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), João Paulo Gomes, precisely because of this situation.
