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Portugal again broke records this Monday in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic: the number of deaths, patients in intensive care and hospitalizations in general. But There is still no idea when we will reach the top of this second wave.. The Director General of Health, during the press conference on the state of the pandemic, went further and says that there will be several peaks, because this pandemic is not a mountain, but a mountain range. The possibility of new measures in schools remained unexplained and the justification for the closure of fairs and markets ended up being reversed with the withdrawal of the Government, shortly after
We are running an endless marathon, we don’t know when it will end. We will probably have other waves, other curves and other peaks. It ends up being more of a mountain range ”, said Graça Freitas, during the press conference.
One of the difficulties in understanding when the peak of the disease is reached is that there is no history. “We do not know the size of the mountain,” said Graça Freitas. Even in relation to the flu, for which there are records from previous years, the general director of Health confesses that, many times, she only knows that the peak of infections has been reached after it has already been decreasing.
For this reason, and seeing that the figures grow day by day, Graça Freitas repeated several times the request that people change their behavior and help flatten the curve, which means reducing the number of new cases, new hospitalizations and new deaths. “We are in an ascending phase, we are in an epidemic curve with a tendency to grow, and we must remember at all times that it is our responsibility to flatten that curve.”
My first request is not to lower our guard no matter how tired we are ”, asked Graça Freitas, acknowledging that pandemic fatigue is a problem.
Prevention is the best way to flatten the curve, reinforced the Director General of Health, who added that although health professionals do everything possible to treat patients well, it is best not to get sick.
And, for that, it is necessary to reduce the number of contacts, without stopping working, going to schools or shopping. “The basic thing is to maintain the physical distance”, a distance of two meters, said Graça Freitas. And of course, wear a mask, wash or disinfect your hands, and avoid putting your hands to your face.
“A bubble is an isolated place, but not inviolable”, warned Graça Freitas. People who live in the same house may consider themselves to be living in the same bubble, which does not prevent any of the elements from bringing the virus home. There can also be bubbles of protection in schools and at work, people with whom each one contacts more, but the Director General of Health warned that family members who live in other houses are not part of our bubble and that not all colleagues (at school or at work) are from our bubble.
However, prevention also involves measures implemented by the Government, companies and other entities, which must create the necessary conditions for people to protect themselves and stay safe, such as schools and workplaces as two examples.
We are all public health agents. We count on each other. This is a disease that affects everyone, ”said Graça Freitas. “Our behaviors are the great barrier between us and the virus to flatten the curve and have better health and better life.”
That is why Graça Freitas advocates that each person do a self-check, that they analyze if they have symptoms, measuring the temperature, realizing if they have lost smell or taste, if they have a cough or body pain.
In addition to prevention, the Director General of Health recalled other measures to contain the pandemic: tests; accompany the sick and all those who need health professionals; trace those who have had contact with patients and isolate them so that they do not continue to spread the disease; Humanize all work in the health area.
Despite a state of exception, one of the issues that the Government has guaranteed is that schools will not close and teaching will continue to be face-to-face. “What we have been doing with schools is, above all, improving communication,” said Graça Freitas.
More than new rules, we are better communicating these rules to the educational community, by the Ministry of Education, and to the health community, by the General Directorate of Health and by the health authorities, ”said the director. general health.
Graça Freitas also pointed out that “schools have been relatively safe places.” Even the cases have not been a major source of transmission, especially in schools with younger children.
However, when asked about adolescents, that is, whether the potential for transmission of the virus equivalent to that of adults can lead to the adoption of new measures for secondary education, the Director General of Health did not answer directly, simply confirming that the transmission pattern in adolescents was more similar to that of adults than that of six-year-olds.
What we do know is that the period called childhood is not all the same, a child is up to six years old, then, as children grow, here, adolescents and young people, they approach a pattern. [de transmissão] similar to adults. And, therefore, it is easier, if necessary, to take measures in higher education so that not all classes are face-to-face ”, says Graça Freitas.
The General Director of Health’s reference to university students, however, escapes the question about adolescents in secondary education, since they are considered adults and, as Graça Freitas says, “they can independently obtain forms of distance learning ”.
For very different reasons, in this exceptional period, fairs and markets on the rise came to a standstill, while shops and shopping centers will continue to open their doors. But right after the Graça Freitas press conference, the Government decided to backtrack and also allow fairs and markets. The closure of fairs and markets was justified by DGS: “In this exceptional period we have to be patient, because we really have to flatten the curve.”
But soon after everything changed, with the announcement that after all the fairs they were going to continue.
The government backs down and allows fairs and markets to take place. Graça Freitas not authorized
Regarding the pilot tests with the football public, Graça Freitas said that they did well, and that their suspension does not mean that they will be definitively interrupted. The general director justified the measure as a suspension during “this phase of flattening of the curve”, in which it is “necessary to act in all senses”.
As soon as conditions are met, once the industry has behaved in such a controlled manner, pilot tests will resume. Now we are in the hardening phase ”, says Graça Freitas.
Regarding the restricted measures that are now imposed, there is another that raises doubts: why can six people sit at the table in a restaurant, when meetings only allow five people? “By definition, the restaurant, the table, is a place where people do not move, do not walk, arrive, sit and leave after finishing the meal,” Graça Freitas answers.
This Monday, Portugal registered 60,962 active cases of infection by the new coronavirus, 937 more than on Saturday. Graça Freitas says that around 96% of these active cases are recovering at home. In addition, there are 66,500 people in prophylactic isolation for having contacted infected people.
Of the 2,255 hospital admissions, 294 are in intensive care units. Most of the patients in intensive care units are over 50 years old, says Graça Freitas. Under 50 there are also people in intensive care, but fewer. “Young people are not immune to serious diseases, they are less often than older people.”
