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Two days before an extraordinary Council of Ministers, scheduled for Saturday, to define the control measures for the pandemic, António Lacerda Sales said that “All countries will begin to adopt restrictive measures at the territorial level, more circumscribed”.
And these restrictions will surely be at the highest level of the territories, so that other territories that are not so under pressure can breathe from the economic and social point of view ”., admitted the Undersecretary of State and Health, in an interview with podcast “Politics with word” of the Socialist Party.
When asked if the government will opt for localized actions or if national restrictions are allowed, such as new blanket containment, Lacerda Sales said that “all the countries of Europe are currently trying to stabilize in a given model that can contain many variables”. And listing that these variables are the incidence of cases in the last 14 days, the new confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the age groups most affected or the pressure on hospitals, he defended that it it is necessary “to stabilize in a given model and obviously the more uniform that model can be (…) the greater security and greater confidence will be given to the populations”.
When asked whether this model will be based at the county or district level, The secretary of state only said that it must have “the consensus of the vast majority of actors” in the areas of health, civil protection, municipalities or social security.
On Wednesday, the president of the Porto Metropolitan Area asked the government to enact a state of emergency, generalizing the measures to the entire country and the president of the Porto District Civil Protection Commission proposed curfews in the district. Faced with these requests, Lacerda Sales reiterated the need to stabilize and standardize the model “so that there are no major discrepancies, neither between municipalities nor between districts.”
However, asked “not to overestimate certain situations and underestimate other situations”, since it considers that “The measures must be adapted to what is in each region its own evolution and epidemiological data”.
Portugal is “in a critical phase of the pandemic”
At the press conference of the General Directorate of Health on Wednesday, the Secretary of State and Deputy for Health admitted that Portugal is in a critical phase of the covid-19 pandemic and insisted on the importance of a balance in the fight against the covid pandemic. -19 between the necessary public health measures and the maintenance of “possible normality”.
The official also affirmed that the autumn / winter plan, already presented, is being consolidated “until the weekend”, but that it is already being applied on the ground, at the national and local levels.
All the measures that are taken will be in the sense of balancing and reconciling what are the best public health measures with what is the possible normality of activity and social and economic life “, also explained the Secretary of State.
Recognizing that the increase in new daily cases can lead to an overload of health services, Lacerda Sales recalled the measures to strengthen the National Health Service (SNS).
“We have done everything possible to strengthen the SNS. In recent weeks we have adopted reinforced measures to contain the pandemic and we will continue to do so.”said the government official.
António Lacerda Sales also referred to the alert from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which this Wednesday marked the increase in hospitalizations in Portugal due to Covid-19, warning that this could only be “the beginning” if the authorities Portuguese companies do not act to contain the virus.
“Of course, we follow the concerns of the ECDC”said the Secretary of State, highlighting that the Government’s measures take into account the recommendations of all the organs.
Encounters with political forces
In addition to the extraordinary Council of Ministers on Saturday, the prime minister scheduled meetings with the parties for Friday.
At the end of Wednesday, a note from the office of the Minister of State and Presidency said that Mariana Vieira da Silva and the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, would hold an audience with the experts who are usually heard in the so-called “Meetings of heart attacks.” followed by a meeting with medical specialists in infectious diseases and intensive medicine.
A government source had previously told the Lusa agency that, given the evolution of the pandemic in Portugal in recent weeks, the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, and the Minister of State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, were already listening to a group. epidemiologists. The Minister of State for the Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, was listening to the social partners.
Still in the context of the fight against Covid-19, the Prime Minister will participate this Thursday in an extraordinary European Council, by videoconference.
It is recalled that on Wednesday a new daily maximum number of contagion cases was reached in Portugal – 3,960 – and the number of people hospitalized has continued to increase for more than a week, reaching 1,794 people, 47 more than on Tuesday and 262 of these (plus nine) are in Intensive Care Units.
According to the latest epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate General of Health, Portugal has already registered 128,392 cases of infection by the new coronavirus and 2,395 deaths.
c / The day after tomorrow
