[ad_1]
The President of the Republic defended this Sunday the need to “adjust” family holidays such as Christmas and eliminated the closure of borders, but warned that everything “depends” on the way in which people “civically face” the pandemic.
In Gerês, Vidoeiro, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa ruled out the need to close borders due to outbreaks of covid-19 in Erasmus students.
“It depends a lot on how people are going to live civically what we are living. People are working, studying, developing their economic and social activity in a pandemic context. In a civic way, what they have to know is to adopt precautions compatible with the activity they carry out in situations where the risk is greater ”, he said.
According to the head of state, “the risk is greater when there are crowds, even if it is festive (…), people can conceive and materialize [esses encontros] in a sensible way taking into account the situation experienced ”, giving as an example the way in which he planned to spend Christmas.
“What I said about Christmas is very simple, I explain what I thought for my Christmas. Instead of having a party on Christmas Eve with dozens of family members in a very limited space, which was the space that was available, it is possible to share a portion that is at lunch, on the 24th, and another at dinner on the 24th. another at lunch on the 25th or at dinner on the 25th, to top it all, a weekend can be extended ”, he said.
“It is possible to find formulas, it is not to stop having their worship ceremonies, to stop families from meeting, it is to meet and celebrate this year in a way that is appropriate,” he explained.
On the possibility of closing borders after a covid-19 outbreak among Erasmus students, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa dismissed this scenario.
“The problem is this, 20 Erasmus students are talking to me. Now there are university and polytechnic structures with more than a hundred cases and which are essentially national. We cannot say that the fault is, because there are some students who come to Erasmus, to open borders (…). We have to be very cool, very rational when analyzing the situation, ”he said.
The President of the Republic also said that he trusts the National Health System to face a second wave of the Covid 19 pandemic, considering that “today we have” a “capacity for structure, organization and experience that was not available seven months ago.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa eliminated the scenario of a new confinement due to the numbers of those infected by the new coronavirus, arguing that the “easy exercise” of confining with the same March figures cannot be done, because the conditions are different.
The head of state admitted “delays” in handling “non-covid-19” cases, but ruled out the possibility of a breakdown. “Yes. Of course you do,” he said when asked if he trusted the National Health System (NHS).
“I immediately trust the National Health System because it has a key piece, which is a column, which is called the National Health Service, which is public. And that SNS can be pushed. They are bigger at certain times, in certain units and in certain areas because ‘covid patients’ are not appearing in the same way throughout the territory, “he explained.
“There are conditions to answer that, and what is envisaged, if necessary, [é] a mobilization of units of the National Health System, which are not just the classic SNS, either for ‘non-Covid patients’ or for ‘Covid patients’. I give you an example: the Hospital of the Armed Forces ”, he continued.
Faced with the numbers of infected by the new coronavirus, which are close to March, when the state of emergency and mandatory confinement was declared, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa considered that these are not identical situations.
“Today the situation may be similar and even in numbers it may be greater than what existed, but today we simply have much finer analysis instruments, we know the ages it affects (…), we have a capacity for structure and organization and experience that there were none and, therefore, decisions are made according to what is known today, which has not been known for seven months, “he said.
For the head of state, “you cannot do that easy exercise, which is what was needed to decree as a state of emergency or confinement, at any given time, [que se] apply automatically and mechanically seven months later; that’s not the way to reason ”.
Regarding the delays and near-recess situations reported in some health centers, the President of the Republic admitted that there are “delays”, but this does not “correspond to a vision” as a whole.
“It does not mean that there is a global breakdown or pre-breakdown situation. There are delays in relation to ‘no covidios’, in consultations and treatments. There is. We all know there is, it’s not worth hiding. (…) The NHS has the capacity to respond to the challenge posed by covid patients and other ‘non-covid’ patients. What happens is that this is not distributed uniformly throughout the continental territory, and there are greater momentary pressures in certain areas ”, he explained.
