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António Costa was present at the inauguration of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Amadora Sintra hospital, now appointed Professor Doctor Fernando Fonseca and stressed that despite the vaccination, the restrictions must continue.
“The country has lived with great excitement and enthusiasm and it even reinforces confidence in the vaccination process that began in recent days. Only here in this hospital between yesterday and today more than 800 health professionals will be vaccinated. The first dose of a vaccine, but the vaccination process is going to be a process of several months ”, explained the prime minister.
António Costa also said that “despite all that, Covid will stay with us and therefore means that we cannot lower our guard and we must maintain all the individual protection standards that we have practiced so far and continue to avoid contacts to the extent of the possible. they are not necessary because they are risk factors ”.
Despite the continuation of Covid-19 and the restrictions, the Prime Minister praised that “thanks to science, the vaccine itself, we know that the industry was even able to produce it, that we can even receive it, store it, distribute it, the professionals of health can apply them ”.
This visit by the prime minister was the first since he came out of prophylactic isolation on Wednesday, December 30. António Costa alerted the Portuguese of the dangers of not complying with the regulations and recalled that it was enough to have lunch with an infected person to have to spend 14 days in prophylactic isolation. “So be very careful, despite the vaccine, we must continue to be very careful.”
The governor left a message of support for the isolated and stressed that the Government’s priority is to strengthen the National Health Service (SNS). To the 91 thousand citizens who, unlike the Prime Minister, are still in prophylactic isolation, Costa wished “everyone who can complete in good health.”
Regarding investment in Health, the official guaranteed that it is necessary “to continue with this investment that we are making in strengthening hospital capacity, that is, in intensive care. First of all, because that was a need for the country regardless of Covid ”.
“When the pandemic began, we were the country that had the least number of intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants and we defined as a priority to strengthen the SNS, we can complete in 2021 reach the average of the European Union in intensive care beds” , he highlighted. António Costa.
“When Covid passes and will pass, this team will continue to be necessary. Therefore, this is not an investment to be made due to the pandemic, the pandemic has made what was already more urgent, it was urgently needed and that is why this hospital that serves two of the most populated municipalities in the country will now be able to double its capacity. intensive care beds than the ones they had until now, ”Costa stressed.
Regarding the large figures that the Portuguese hear and read in the news every day, the prime minister explained that “the National Health Service for next year alone does not exceed 12 billion euros, almost as much as the famous European bazooka and we had a first big push in the initial 2020 budget and we had a second big push in the supplemental one. We have in this Budget that will come into force next day 1 a reinforcement of more than 1,200 million euros ”, recalled António Costa.
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