A new phase of vaccination begins; January, the month with the most deaths

A The situation of the pandemic in Portugal is serious and the pressure it exerts on hospitals is setting off all the alarms. On the day the country reached a new high for ICU inmates (858), it became known that Germany and Austria would help in this fight.

Also on Sunday, the day the new State of Emergency measures came into force, such as the closure of borders, 9,498 new cases of Covid-19 and 303 deaths were registered in Portugal.

In the month of February, which begins today, the new vaccination phase begins, which includes Portuguese people who are 50 years old or older and who suffer from some identified diseases. This phase runs until the end of March, as foreseen in the first phase of the national plan.

A vacinação operation no group two people from two 80 years also starts this week, plus only the North and Lisbon and Vale do Tejo regions, in some health centers, in a way to test or model that will be later applied to everything the country.

The vaccine administration of Pfizer and Moderna, Portugal will also be able to count on vaccines from AstraZeneca as of February 9, when “about 113 thousand doses will arrive,” according to the coordinator of the working group responsible for the health plan.

You can consult in these interactive maps the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic in Portugal and in the World.

Follow MINUTES here for the latest developments on Covid-19:

09h30 – The Guarda Polytechnic Institute (IPG) is distributing meals to students in prophylactic isolation or infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and to reevaluate scholarships for those most in need, it was announced today.

09h25 – Boris Johnson is among the many who wished the best to Tom Moore, the centennial who raised 36.6 million euros for the British health system (NHS), and who received a distinction for the achievement. Sir Tom Moore was hospitalized this Sunday after contracting the new coronavirus.

My thoughts are very with @ CaptainTomMoore and his family. You have inspired the entire nation and I know we all wish you a full recovery. https://t.co/Gm0S07umgd

– Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 31, 2021

09h15 – Pfizer guarantees another 75 million doses of vaccine for this year. Pfizer and BioNTech plan to make, after all, 2 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and not the 1.3 billion it had originally planned for 2021. That means it will have 75 million more doses available than those. initially planned, says El País. .

09h10 – The Covid-19 pandemic conditioned the work of the first month of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), making it almost exclusively virtual and even causing the prophylactic isolation of three European commissioners after a visit to the country.

09h08 – Independent and managing partners can now apply for Social Security support. Self-employed workers, including sole proprietors and managing partners subject to the suspension of activities or closure of facilities and establishments by legal determination, can request the support of Social Security from today, February 1, and until the next 10.

08h57 – The Guarda Polytechnic Institute (IPG) invested more than half a million euros in the internet network and in the videoconferencing system to improve the quality of distance education, imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

08h31 – Vaccination of older people with diseases starts this week only in the north and in the Lisbon region. Portugal gives this month, February, the beginning of a new vaccination phase, which includes Portuguese who are 50 years old or older and who suffer from some identified diseases.. According to the newspaper Público, the vaccination operation in the group of elderly people from the age of 80 also begins this week, but only in the North and Lisbon and Tagus Valley regions in some health centers, in order to test the model which will later be expanded. to the whole country.

Only people over 80 years of age who suffer from diseases will be immunized first, and people aged 50 and over with more serious diseases will be left for later.

08h15 – The British government ordered an additional 40 million doses of the vaccine from the French pharmaceutical company Valvena (which is only scheduled for 2022), bringing the total number of doses ordered by the country to 100 million, Reuters reports.

08:10 – Will I need to wear a mask after being vaccinated? “The World Health Organization recommends that vaccinated people continue to maintain the safety measures adopted so far, such as social detachment, the use of a mask and frequent hand washing,” said the General Directorate of Health, through Facebook .

08h04 – Russia registered 17,648 new cases of Covid-19 and another 437 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this update, the country accounts for a total of 3,868,087 infections and 73,619 deaths.

07h57 – At a time when we are experiencing a second lockdown, our mental health needs, more than ever, to be addressed. Bearing this principle in mind, the Portuguese Association of Psychologists in collaboration with the Directorate General of Health (DGS) have prepared a top 10 suggestions to take into account to achieve “Isolation with Psychological Health”.

7:50 am – The World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic today visited the Center for Disease Control that handled the first cases of Covid-19 in China.

07h31 – January was the month with the most deaths in the last 12 years. January 2021 was the month with the highest number of deaths in the last 12 years, with 19,452 deaths and almost every day new highs were reached, according to data from the Death Certificate Information System (SICO).

As for the deaths considered “in excess” by the health authorities, in relation to expectations, SICO data show that only in the last week of the month there were more than 2,560. In the worst month of the pandemic, deaths from covid-19 accounted for about 28% of deaths in January.

07h26 – The Portuguese Society for Pre-Hospital Emergencies (SPEPH) welcomed this Sunday the possibility of Germany sending health professionals and medical teams to Portugal, but stressed the importance of “creating pre-hospital emergency courses.”

07h25 – A new period of imprisonment enters into force today in Madeira as part of the measures to combat Covid-19, and will last until February 21, keeping the curfew and the suspension of face-to-face classes in force.

07h20 – This Monday, Germany reports 5,608 new cases of Covid-19 and 175 deaths. According to data updated by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country now has a total of 2,221,971 cases and 57,120 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

07h15 – India has recorded 118 deaths from Covid-19 and 11,427 cases in the last 24 hours, according to data released today by the Indian Ministry of Health.

07h10 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with pharmaceutical companies today to discuss problems with the supply of Covid-19 vaccines, at a time when an atmosphere of tension, frustration and distrust grows.

07h04 – Mexico has registered 462 deaths from the new coronavirus and 7,030 cases in the last 24 hours, Mexican authorities reported.

07h02 – The China Health Commission reported today that 42 new cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in the past 24 hours, including 33 due to a local infection.

07h00 – Good day! You can keep track of all virus related incidents in this log. Remember the previous one here.

Also read: AT THE MINUTE: Germany decides to support Portugal at the “beginning of the week”