[ad_1]
646. In a single day, since April 20, almost five months ago, there were not so many new cases of contagion in the country. Does this mean that we are going backwards, towards a new peak of the pandemic? Not necessarily, they insisted on saying, on more than one occasion, Jamila Madeira, Secretary of State for Health, and Graça Freitas, in the usual mid-week meeting at the headquarters of the General Health Directorate, in Lisbon.
First, of the 646 positive tests known in the last 24 hours, explained the Director General of Health, only 12% belonged to patients older than 70 years – “What is a positive indicator in relation to its potential severity”. The mortality rate of the new coronavirus in Portugal was set at 14.8% in patients older than 70 years; The general fatality rate of the disease in the country is 3%, the Undersecretary of State for Health had revealed minutes before.
In a day of high numbers, many data were revealed at the press conference this Wednesday, especially by Jamila Madeira: 97.6% of active cases are at home; 2.1% are admitted to the hospital, on the ward, and only 0.3% are admitted to intensive care units. They are differences in relation to the panorama of April, when there was one, Graça Freitas pointed out before the curtain fell, 3,692 cases of contagion in nursing homes are terrible, now there are 887.
In other words, as much as they are increasing, the figures are not increasing among the older population, and the increase that the Government and the DGS were already expecting, especially at this time of the end of the holidays, the return to work and the reopening of schools. “We are neither happy nor satisfied” was the expression used by Jamila Madeira, when asked about the explosion of new cases, “but we already expected that the number of infections would increase again at this time.” The new contingency period for the entire country, which will begin on September 15, he added, was already planned with this in mind.
“We are facing a focus mainly on family transmission, so the decrease in the number of contacts continues to be the greatest instrument we have to reduce the spread of the number of cases,” explained Jamila Madeira, refocusing on contagion. at home. or in a family environment.
Graça Freitas proposed to repeat himself on numerous occasions during the press conference. You need to schedule and plan what needs to be done. “Things are not being done in a reactive way,” he said, citing schedules; referring to the creation of rapid intervention brigades, such as those that should act in nursing homes, in the event of possible future outbreaks; or even the initiative to test the 36 members of the Belarusian delegation, in Portugal for qualification for the European Under-21 Championship, after three members of the team have tested positive.
After admitting that the Government is still waiting, with the return to school and the end of the summer, a worsening of the pandemic – “We believe that the numbers are going to change” – Jamila Madeira also announced the launch of a contest to buy new protective equipment (PPE) for a total value of 20 million euros.
“For the government, the safety of health professionals continues to be fundamental in the strategy to combat the pandemic that we have adopted,” he reinforced, after an exhaustive description of the PPE that must be acquired and made available to health professionals. health in “timely”.
Then, as if to demonstrate the same concern, the Undersecretary of State and Health revealed another figure, that of health professionals infected by the new coronavirus in Portugal, which will be around 7.5%, “a figure significantly lower” than the world average, of the World Health Organization, which will be around 10%, considered.
Although a large part of the figures presented were looking for optimism (even in a day of return to the peak values of pandemic contagion), when they were asked about the reopening of bars and discos and the return of the public to the stadiums, Jamila Madeira and Graça Freitas appealed. common sense and asked for caution.
“Be cautious that at times like these we do not try other measures that may lead to more contacts,” concluded the Director General of Health, after explaining that, next week, at least 1.2 million students and 120 thousand teachers will return to classes – with all the contacts and possible infections this will cause in the coming weeks.
“Surely it will not be in the near future” that clubs and bars will reopen or that football matches will be held outside the open door, he quickly concluded.
Rui Santos Ivo, who made them this company this Wednesday when the interruption of the testing phase of what was conventionally called the Oxford vaccine, under development by AstraZeneca, was revealed to the world, explained that the stop caused by the appearance of side effects. in one of the participants it is a natural procedure, which is usually part of phase 3 of this type of test, the one in which more people, of different age groups and with different background, you are invited to participate.
“We are facing a normal operating situation of the system”, assured the president of Infarmed, explaining that it is time to understand “all the aspects that have to do with the efficacy of the vaccine but also with its safety” and insisting on underlining: “What happened is not the suspension of the vaccine, it is the suspension of studies.”
