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After alerting the local health authorities about the population of the municipalities of Felgueiras, Lousada and Paços de Ferreira due to a situation of “worrying active community transmission”, the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa also launched an appeal to users in its area of influence, alerting about the situation that exists not only in these municipalities but in the rest of the areas of Vale do Sousa and Baixo Tâmega. “We call on everyone to help us fight the pandemic with appropriate behaviors,” reads this Monday in a note published on social networks, where the hospital center indicates that the weekend’s statement applies to the rest of the region. “The huge increase in COVID-19 infection cases in our region makes it very difficult to fight without a collective effort. Everyone’s help is essential and we are counting on this collaboration to overcome this difficult period in our collective life ”, continues the hospital.
Weddings and baptisms advised against
The initial alert was issued on Saturday, the day on which the local health authorities of the Group of Health Centers of Tâmega III – Vale do Sousa Norte advised the population against holding events of any nature that may involve the concentration of people, as well as parties. , family lunches and dinners and celebrations such as baptisms and weddings, which at this point at the national level can be held with a limit of 50 people but which seem to be one of the main sources of contagion. They reported 944 cases in the municipalities of Lousada, Paços de Ferreira and Felgueiras in the last seven days alone, asking people to stay home and directly contact local health services in case of symptoms.
In the note to users, the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa warns that, particularly in this period, “they should only go to the Hospital emergency room in truly serious cases”, also recognizing that they are opening several points in the region to to be able to carry out screening tests for COVID19, “so contact with the Saúde 24 line and family doctors are the appropriate access points before going to the emergency services”.
With more than double the cases in Lisbon
The data on the evolution of cases by municipality, updated as usual on Monday by the General Directorate of Health, confirm the figures released by ACES Tâmega III with only slight differences. With 565 new cases reported in the last week, Paços de Ferreira began to emerge behind Lisbon and Sintra as the municipality with the most new covid-19 diagnoses in the last week, when in the previous week it had registered only 124 cases. Lisbon registered 781 new cases in this last week and Sintra 653. The difference is that these counties are the most populated in the country, registering in the last week an incidence of seven days of 153 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the case of Lisbon and 167 in the case of Sintra (using INE population estimates by municipality for 2019).
In Paços de Ferreira, with 56 thousand inhabitants, the incidence calculation shows 996 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, the region with the highest incidence nationwide. Analyzing the different regions of Vale do Sousa and Baixo Tâmega, which belong to the area of influence of the hospital center, it can be seen that in recent days this area of the country, with about 500 thousand inhabitants, is the one that registers the most new cases: 1707 new cases, which gives an incidence of 340 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants (it is more than double that of Lisbon, with approximately the same number of inhabitants). Above, there are only the municipalities of Alvaiázere and Alcoutim, with much fewer cases and population, so they are not comparable realities.
In the North, the region of the country that has been registering the most new cases, Porto and Bragança are the municipalities with the highest incidence as well as those with the most cases in the Vale do Sousa area.
Yesterday at the DGS press conference, the situation of no point in the country was mentioned in particular and I had no answer to the questions raised about the alert made by the local authorities during the weekend, that is, due to the fact that there is active community transmission, which has been synonymous with more cases in which it is not possible to identify the link of infection. The Director General of Health stressed, however, that at the national level it is possible to establish this connection in 59% of the cases detected in the first surveys. The Northern Regional Health Administration, which I contacted to find out if new measures would be proposed in this region, clarified that the work of local health authorities has focused on people following the guidelines that have been given to them, that is, , as far as insulation is concerned. “Professionals are tireless in carrying out their duties, but the populations will also have to comply with the guidelines and advice that the authorities are transmitting to them,” reinforced the Northern Regional Health Administration.
The mayors have already met
In a round of the official pages of the municipalities concerned, it appears that alerts to the population have been reinforced and the guarantee that new test points and support lines are being activated. But at least the Municipality of Lousada has already asked the Ministry of Health to reinforce the measures, showing concern about the difficulties in monitoring the cases by the SNS24. “At the end of the afternoon, in a meeting with ARS Norte and other mayors of the region, the epidemiological diagnosis of the region was outlined, with evidence of an increase in cases among young people and the critical situation in which we find ourselves in general terms. The response capacity of the different Health Units is reaching its maximum, as well as the Tâmega e Sousa Hospital Center itself ”, reads a message from the mayor to the public published on Facebook on Sunday. “I presented my arguments to the president of ARS Norte, highlighting the importance of containing the current situation and restricting non-essential activities as much as possible, so that in the future it is not necessary to detain the entire country.”
This Monday at the DGS press conference no new measures were proposed. Asked about what situation would lead to decreeing the state of emergency, the Secretary of State for Health, António Lacerda Sales, stressed the importance of the entire population following the recommendations at this stage. “The state of emergency applies when the threat is very serious or more serious. This is not the stage we are in, ”he emphasized.
At the end of the meeting with the President of the Republic, the Minister of Health called for compliance with the regulations. Marta Temido said that the available data points to a worsening of the epidemic, highlighting that it is possible to reverse the situation with effective measures and the behavior of each one.
In the North, and in this area in particular, the worsening of the epidemiological situation has been notorious and already exceeds the figures of the first wave of the epidemic, although in terms of hospital occupancy in nursing and intensive care there is still capacity at the regional level . However, the pressure is expected to increase from now on. In INSA’s latest calculation, published on Friday, the North had a TR of 1.36, the highest since the end of March. At that time, however, there were not an average of a thousand cases a day in the region, which at this point increases the risk of spreading the virus. At the national level, the RT was calculated at 1.27, being 1.33 in the Center region, 1.16 in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region, 1.18 in the Alentejo region and 0.99 in the region from the Algarve.
