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The mayor of Abrantes reacted with surprise to the inclusion of the municipality in the very high risk list, after all there was even an error in the count of positive cases in the municipality, with more than a hundred cases omitted from the daily maps of health authorities. . The failure was assumed this Sunday by the delegate of Public Health of Medio Tejo. The municipality of Abrantes, instead of having 93 new patients for covid-19 in the period from November 6 to 19, had, after all, 203 cases, that is 110 more, figures that justify the entry of Abrantes into the orange list. national map and that do not coincide with the data presented daily by the health authorities. It should be remembered that, recently, in Entroncamento, more than 60 cases had been omitted from the daily maps and subsequently updated, the updating of the data being the reason for a request for clarification by the local authority.
PUB
This update of 110 more cases in Abrantes only this Monday will enter the daily public health reports of the Middle Tagus, with Maria dos Anjos Esperança aware of what happened, assuming the errors in the public disclosure of the accounting of the data in the period which would define the criteria for classifying municipalities according to their level of risk. To everyone’s surprise, Abrantes was classified as a high-risk municipality, with more than 480 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, when, according to known figures, Abrantes presented on the 19th, the day on which the 14-day period closed for purposes accountants. , a proportion of 265 cases per 100 thousand people.
HEALTH AUDIO DELEGATE, MARIA DOS ANJOS HOPE:
The case raised many doubts in public opinion and, indeed, there were reasons for this. The fact is that Abrantes did not have enough registered cases to be part of this “very high” risk group and always maintained values in the range of two hundred cases per 100 thousand inhabitants (265 to November 19), the population being and the mayors He was surprised the day the national list became known, which placed Abrantes not at the yellow level but at the orange level and with greater restrictive measures.
With the sum of the 110 cases lost in the bulletins, Abrantes now has a ratio of 578 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the period from November 6 to 19, exceeding 480 cases and thus entering the list of very high municipalities risk.
The inclusion of Abrantes on the list made no sense, in light of the known data, and the mayor himself said that he was surprised by what happened on social networks:
“It was a surprise that we saw that the name of the municipality of Abrantes was included in the municipalities designated as” very high risk “in the new assessment published yesterday. [sábado] for the goverment. A surprise based on the fact that in the period of time that served as a sample for the definition of these new risk designations, we had a number of infected people well below the number of cases defined by the Government for this “risk” categorization. very high”.
We immediately contacted the health entities and the Government to express our disagreement with this decision and provide additional clarifications. We believe that the implementation of measures is important but it must be consistent with the number of cases, which is not our case. We are defending our community, that is, local businesses and restaurants, which are highly penalized by this restriction, ”Manuel Jorge Valamatos wrote on Sunday, and the Health delegate assumed that same day that there was an error in the accounting provided to know publicly .
Maria dos Anjos Esperança assured mediotejo.net that the new cases of patients now reported (110) and not counted in Abrantes were followed by the Public Health authorities, an error that she said happened through updated laboratory notifications of old cases and by data that were not accounted for by ACES Médio Tejo, having ensured that all the data relating to other municipalities are correct.
Abrantes Chamber requests determination of responsibilities
On the same day that he asked for clarification, Manuel Jorge Valamatos was contacted by the Health delegate of ACES Médio Tejo to report what happened, information that the mayor of Abrantes disclosed on social networks, also requesting clarification of responsibilities.
“Due to the various contacts made with the competent authorities requesting clarification on the entry of Abrantes to a new pandemic level, the City Council received a few moments ago a clarification from the local DGS health delegate, indicating that the number of active infected in the municipality they were badly accounted for in recent weeks by this entity, ”said the mayor.
“The total number of cases amounts to 203 people, which in the weighting of cases per 100,000 inhabitants corresponds to 570 cases, that is, within the limits in which the municipalities of very high risk fall. According to the DGS local health delegate, “all the cases of patients in the municipality of Abrantes were subjected to a risk assessment and their contacts were followed up according to the DGS standards, however they had not been translated into numbers in the Daily Infographic Summary ”, he reported.
“Unfortunately it is a situation that the Municipality of Abrantes was unaware of and has already asked for the determination of responsibilities,” concluded Valamatos.
The government released the list of municipalities according to their risk level early Saturday morning and Alcanena is the municipality of the Middle Tagus with the most worrying values, above 960 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, making up the group of 47 municipalities . “Extremely high risk” and that will have (still) stricter measures.
It is, in fact, the only municipality in the Santarém district with this classification, which is justified by an outbreak that started in a house in Minde, and which is already responsible for more than 150 positive cases of covid-19.
Shortly after, Abrantes, Constância and Ourém are among a group considered to be of “very high risk”, with more than 480 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Entroncamento, Tomar, Torres Novas, Sardoal and Vila Nova da Barquinha are in the second of the four risk levels (“high”, with values higher than 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (but lower than 480).
Below the “red line” drawn in 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, only four districts remain: Ferreira do Zêzere, Mação, Sertã and Vila de Rei.
The mayor of Constância, Sérgio Oliveira, also challenged on social networks the inclusion of the municipality in the “very high risk” group, without finding “an objective reason” for this decision. “It seems to me that dates and periods for counting positive cases overlap. I already expressed my deep displeasure to the Government of the Republic and asked for a clarification. Clarity and objectivity is required in the information and communications that are made ”, he considered.
However, the mayor of Constância already said that he had obtained the clarifications requested. “Our municipality was considered to have a very high risk because positive cases were counted from 6/11/2020 to 11/19/2020 (we had 21). I do not agree with the period of time that was considered and expressed to those who had the right to it. I consider this an injustice. The period to be considered should have started on 8/11 or 9/11. I am very concerned about the local economy, ”he said.
According to the daily accounts carried out by mediotejo.net, based on official data from the Public Health Units of the region, Constância has effectively risen to over 480 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in recent days (496 at the moment) , like Ourém (613). Abrantes, for its part, did not have enough registered cases to integrate this “very high” risk group: it always maintained values in the range of two hundred cases per 100,000 inhabitants (228, on Saturday).
Chamusca, Gavião and Ponte de Sor, “neighboring” municipalities of the Middle Tagus, appear integrated into the “high” risk level, with values of just over 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The measures applied to the “very high” and “extremely high” risk municipalities (Alcanena, Abrantes, Constância and Ourém) will be the same, as of November 24 and for a period of 15 days.
- Prohibition of circulation on public roads between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. on weekdays;
- Prohibition of circulation on public roads on Saturdays and Sundays between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
- Prohibition of circulation on public roads on December 1 and 8 between 1 and 5 in the morning;
- On November 30 and December 7, commercial establishments must close at 3 pm;
- Follow-up action on compliance with mandatory teleworking.
Bridges “obligatory” in the December holidays
On November 30 and December 7, school activities will be suspended at all educational levels throughout the country. On the same dates there will be tolerance of time in the public function and the Prime Minister called on private entities to follow the example and fire the workers on those two days, in order to achieve, with these two long weekends, have “A month of December as calm as possible”.
There will also be a new prohibition of circulation between municipalities on those days, more specifically between 11 pm on November 27 and 5 am on December 2; and between 11 pm on December 4 and 5 am on December 9.
