[ad_1]
“We are at a turning point. On the continent, the situation is evolving exponentially. In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, there are more than 100 active positive cases registered, ”said Tiago Lopes, adding that the northern hemisphere is at the beginning of the influenza season.
The head of the Regional Health Authority, who is also the regional director of Health, spoke in Angra do Heroísmo, at a press conference, to learn about the state of the art on the evolution of the covid-19 pandemic in the region.
Since June, when the region reached zero active cases of infection, the Regional Health Authority stopped holding biweekly information sessions on this topic.
Tiago Lopes, who is a candidate for Terceira Island in the regional legislative elections, justified the balance to the media, less than a week before the vote, with the evolution of the national situation and the fact that, on the island of São Miguel, A case of infection was detected in a school and a hospitalized user, which generated “greater attention” on the part of health professionals.
The head of the Health Authority asked the population to call the Azores Health Line “in the first instance” in case of flu or covid-19 symptoms, instead of using emergency services, stressing that it was this “the key to success” of containing the pandemic in the first phase.
On the other hand, he highlighted the importance of flu vaccination, calling on citizens over 60 years of age or belonging to risk groups to contact the health unit of their municipality.
According to the Regional Director of Health, 5,200 people have already been vaccinated in the Azores, including home users and long-term care units and health professionals.
Since June, 13 local transmission chains of the new coronavirus have been identified in the Azores, 10 on the island of São Miguel, one in Santa María, one in Pico and one in Terceira, but three (in São Miguel) have been reported as extinct.
With the exception of one, all the chains “are identified, circumscribed and confined”, having originated in imported cases.
In the case of the user hospitalized in Ponta Delgada, the close contacts with a positive result “all belong to the same home”, but the origin of the infection has not yet been detected, as was the case with an isolated case on the island of Faial.
Tiago Lopes said that, “until now, the possibility of community transmission in the Azores is not in sight”, but stressed that this hypothesis “is always latent.”
“We are not free for this to happen, at any time to identify a positive case without a clear, unequivocal and immediate history of connection with the outside world and through its activity of daily life (…) that could trigger a focus of infection and have a community transmission ”, he warned.
The head of the Regional Health Authority also dismissed a scenario of uncontrolled situation on the island of São Miguel, where more than half of the active cases are concentrated in the Azores.
“We have fewer cases than we already had a few days ago, when we exceeded 70 active positive cases. At an epidemiological level, compared to the rest of the national territory, we are the region with the least active positive cases, ”he emphasized.
As for the situation in the nursery school, attended by a 5-year-old boy, who today tested positive for the new coronavirus, the regional director of Health said that it will be decided “in the next few hours”, based on the results of epidemiological research. , if it will be necessary to restrict more classes or close the establishment.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, 354 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which causes covid-19, have been detected in the Azores, with 66 currently active. 16 deaths and 223 recoveries were recorded.
Of the 208 cases detected since the region reached zero assets, 171 were imported and 37 infected in the region, of which 94 were diagnosed in the screening tests carried out upon arrival in the archipelago, 70 in the tests carried out on the 6th , five the next day. 14th day and two in aircraft crew.
[ad_2]
