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“The most difficult is yet to come,” warned the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, on Monday with the PS that marked the return of the holidays. The official was referring to the ground that must be prepared for the coming months, after the number of daily deaths and infections has decreased during the summer.
“It is true that there is much to do, the most difficult is yet to come,” said Marta Temido, after presenting the balance of the year so far this year. With the change of season approaching and the threat of a second wave of covid-19 infections, the minister says that this is the time to concentrate efforts to prepare for this season. In these first three weeks of September, the government and the country must prepare “for an autumn / winter phase that is anticipated with new difficulties,” said Marta Temido, in Coimbra.
“The most difficult” is a reference to a “complex context”, which combines the return to school with the seasonal flu and the “usual increase in mortality in the winter months, especially in the elderly,” said the minister. In addition, there is an “inescapable need to guarantee health responses other than responses to the covid-19 disease” and the unsustainability of “supporting a new emergency shutdown”, He added.
The head of the health portfolio had started the intervention with a chronology since January 2020, when Marta Temido, in her own words, “was a happy minister.” Later, everything precipitated, even before the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. But then, when taking stock, the head of the health portfolio addressed what lies ahead, which may be even more arduous, he warned. With this speech by Marta Temido, the government paves the way and paves the way in case the message has to change its tone.
But lessons were also learned from the pandemic, Marta Temido said. “We cannot be distracted by other issues, with other controversies, with those who want to waste our time,” he said, in apparent allusion to the controversies with doctors, whose role he insisted on recognizing: “without health professionals there is no health system “.
“Controlled increase”
This Monday, Portugal registered three more deaths and 244 cases of infection by the new coronavirus, which corresponds to an increase of 0.4% in the number of patients with covid-19. In total, there are 1,822 deaths and 58,012 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic. Of the 244 new cases, 137 (56%) were registered in the Lisbon region and 83 (34%) in the northern region.
The area of the country most affected by the pandemic continues to be the Lisbon region and the Tagus Valley, which has 29,921 accumulated cases of contagion. It is followed by the north, with 20,859; the Center, with 4807 (seven more than the previous day); the Algarve, with 1112 (plus seven); and Alentejo with 944 (seven more in the last 24 hours). The Azores counted 212 cases of contagion (three more than on Sunday) and Madeira is left with a total of 157.
It was also in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo region where the majority of cases were registered during the past week (1105 in seven days). Since August 24, the municipality of Lisbon has registered the highest number of cases, with 143 new cases in one week (in a total of 5087), followed by Sintra with 139 more cases (4279 in total); Vila Franca de Xira, with 99 new cases (1,323 in total); Amadora, with 83 more (out of 2494); the municipality of Azambuja, with 74 more infections (226 in total) and Odivelas, with 57 more cases (1806 in total).
In the North, Braga was the municipality with the most new infections (55) in the last week, in a total of 1379 accumulated cases. Vila do Conde follows, with 53 more cases; Guimarães, with 52 more infected people and Vila Verde, with 51 new infections.
The general director of Health, Graça Freitas, reiterated yesterday that, despite the increase in cases in recent days, the covid-19 figures remain stable and that it is “a controlled increase.” “We predicted and it had already been said: contact during the summer could increase the number of cases. This has happened and we have seen something interesting that is the focus on families ”. with Filipa Almeida Mendes and Sofia Neves
