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During the critical period of the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic, the Azores were in a counter-cyclical way with the country: on the continent the pandemic was out of control and the situation was dramatic, while in the Azores archipelago the number of cases decreased and life progressively resumed.
Now, the Azores remain countercyclical to the mainland, but the roles have been reversed. At a time when uncertainty is the subject of the coming weeks in the national territory, in the Azorean archipelago new restrictions were announced this Thursday. Among them, the closure of all schools and the adoption of virtual education throughout the island of São Miguel, the most populated of the Azores.
“It was decided that all educational establishments on the island of São Miguel will be in a distance education regime next week,” the regional secretary of Health, Clélio Meneses, began by saying at the weekly conference to monitor the epidemiological situation in the region. justifying the decision for four reasons.
The first is the spread of the English strain in the archipelago. Of the 114 cases in São Miguel, 96 are of the new strain, which, according to Clélio Meneses, has a “high degree of transmissibility in the younger bands”. Then, there is a “very significant” number of students who reside in municipalities where the risk of contagion is very low, but who study in municipalities where the degree of contagion is high.
The third justification was the approaching of the Easter holidays, which implies that, in practice, schools only close for one week. The measures will be reevaluated after Easter. The last reason is related to the increase in the number of covid-19 cases in the region.
“It is necessary to have the notion that we left in the last week with zero hospitalizations in the Azores. Right now we have seven admissions to the Hospital Divino Espírito Santo [em Ponta Delgada, São Miguel]. Which means that we have clear and obvious warning signs that must be taken into account ”.
Controlled situation, but concern in São Miguel
A fortnight ago, the Azores had 79 active cases in the archipelago, 67 in São Miguel, nine in Pico and three in Terceira. Before, on February 26, there were 56 positive cases, 47 of which were in São Miguel.
Currently, the region has 115 positive cases: 114 in São Miguel and another in Terceira. A consecutive increase in the number of cases, but that does not mean that the pandemic is out of control, said Gustavo Tato Borges, coordinator of the pandemic combat commission in the archipelago. For that, it presented the average number of daily cases: in the last 14 days the average was 9.1, a number lower than the average of 11 cases per day registered in the region since the start of the pandemic.
But if the archipelago was in a counter-cycle with the country at the beginning of the year, internally the situations were also reversed. Almost all the municipalities of the Azores are classified as having a very low risk of contagion, including that of Ribeira Grande, which for months was the only one where the pandemic was not controlled, even going so far as to impose a sanitary cordon in the parish of Rabo. . of Peixe.
Once the situation of this fishing village has been overcome, in São Miguel there is now a low-risk municipality, Povoação, a medium-risk municipality, Ponta Delgada, and a high-risk municipality, Lagoa. Pandemic control measures are applied by municipality and differ according to the degree of risk, evaluated in the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Thus, in Ponta Delgada (which registers 51 cases), bars and restaurants will close at 8:00 p.m., there is a limitation of concentration on public roads for up to six people, visits to the homes of the elderly and the presence of El public at the events sports and cultural events are suspended – as already announced in relation to the Santa Clara – Tondela game.
In Lagoa, the municipality with 22 infected, bars and cafes will close at 3 in the afternoon put off thereafter) and the curfew will be in effect from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am during the week and from 3:00 pm to 5:00 am on weekends. In Lagoa, all stores will close at 8 pm and gyms and swimming pools will be closed. “We have an epicenter, a focus and our concern in the Azores, which is the situation in São Miguel,” said Tato Borges.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 4,040 cases of covid-19 have been diagnosed in the archipelago and 29 people have died from contagion of the new coronavirus.
