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After many numbers, at the press conference to update the epidemiological situation in Portugal one of the questions was about social gatherings, called there “BBB” – weddings, baptisms and banquets. Are they responsible for the increase in cases, which reached a new peak this Friday in six months?
Graça Freitas, general director of Health, began to smile at the question – “I did not know the expression” – but then closed her face to say: “67% of the cases reported in Portugal occur in these gatherings, which leads to the relaxation, which leads to multiple contacts, which are usually accompanied by meals ”. What he said next is what has been heard most often at these press conferences. “If we are allowed to appeal to families, people, friends, it is because they try to socialize less at this stage when the virus is very active in Europe. The countries that surround us have many cases ”.
Second to the words of Graça Freitas are the figures for Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria or Ukraine, countries that this Friday have broken records for months or absolute maximums of new cases since the start of the pandemic. The Director General of Health said that 4% of new infections in Portugal originate in other countries, but stressed that the problem, for now, is really the encounters between family and friends.
“Reducing the number of day-to-day contacts makes it much easier,” he recalled, repeating the warning to the youngest, mentioned in the question, about two outbreaks among Erasmus students from the universities of Porto and Aveiro – “a young man, even if he does not have a serious disease, he is a vector of the disease, a transmitter for other groups and for the community. Let’s slow down what they called the BBB. “
Lisbon and the Tagus Valley far from the break
As usual, this Friday’s press conference consisted of several numbers. In addition to those of the General Health Directorate bulletin, the presence of Luís Pisco, president of ARS Lisboa and Valle del Tajo, brought a few more.
“We have 503 beds for 383 hospitalized, which means that we have not yet reached our limit,” said the official, who brought to the conference a table of the 13 hospitals in the region that receive patients with covid-19. Among them, there are 6,330 versatile beds, which can be used for covid or non-covid patients.
In the Intensive Care Units, the beds are also far from breaking – in addition to those in use, there are still “a total of 185 more beds if they need to be accommodated” – and the support structures for the hospitals of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo they are up and running. This is the case of the old Belém Military Hospital (today the Covid-19 Military Reception Center, CAM), which currently has 30 beds, all occupied, for patients in the final phase of recovery.
The Health Minister said that most of the currently infected people in Portugal are recovering at home. Of the 735 most active cases between Thursday and Friday, 97.3% are at home.
At the beginning of the day, given the warnings to the population, Marta Temido left some to the professionals of the sector. “I understand that health professionals are tired and that there are many tasks, I understand that the pressure on everyone is high, but this is not the time for anyone to give up.”
The minister spoke of the points to improve in the containment of the pandemic and the rest of the problems that hospitals now face, highlighting the attention in primary care, the telephone calls in the hospitals, “which require the remodeling of telephone exchanges”, which It will be done in the coming months, and the “humanization of care and unequivocal respect for the people we have to serve.”
But he also pulled out of the gallons to talk about beefing up testing – “from an average of 2,500 a day in the beginning to 19,600 a day in October” – by buying more fans, reducing wait times on the SNS 24 phone line and introducing of the StayAway Covid app, “which is an essential tool.”
Noting October 7 as the record day for the number of tests in Portugal, 28,392, the minister said that 8% of these tests were positive. “It’s a warning sign.”
