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Algarve heightens virus preparations by turning pavilions into field hospitals

4algarve pavilionThe 16 municipalities of the Algarve are preparing equipment in pavilions in order to receive groups of people who may need to be quarantined or need light medical care due to COVID-19. This is a measure that aimed at "preventing serious situations, like the one that happened in Faro", explained António Pina, president of AMAL - the Intermunicipal Community of the Algarve.

The situation in the Algarve’s capital which Mr. Pina is referring to is when the municipality had to quickly transform the School Pavilion at EB 2,3 Santo António School into a welcoming place for 74 people who had come in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19.

“We are all identifying locations and equipment, in case it is necessary to activate this response. We are also defining, together with the Regional Health Administration and the University Hospital Centre of the Algarve, the need to increase the number of non-hospital beds to respond to citizens who, after leaving the hospital, need rest but who have no way to go home,” explained the president of AMAL. In other words: the idea also involves welcoming people who, "having a high risk of contagion", do not want to - or cannot - return to their homes.

The decision on the utility to be given to the spaces "is made on a case-by-case basis, depending on what will be articulated with the health entities".

In Portimão, the first Algarve municipality to register a case of Covid-19, a municipal pavilion has been kept on standby since the 20th of March, ready to receive up to 18 people.

The pavilion is divided into two distinct areas - one for adults, one for children. There is also another pavilion already prepared for six people, as well as a medical office with 20 spare care kits (bed, pillow and sleeping bag). To this, we add four more pavilions, and Portimão Arena as a reserve.

As for Albufeira, it also has "several prepared responses", guaranteed Mayor José Carlos Rolo. The Municipal Pavilion is already equipped with 30 beds and the Francisco Cabrita School Pavilion is "ready to accommodate homeless people, if necessary".

The Hotel Real Bela Vista has “20 rooms for the elderly” available and the Pateo Village, a tourist resort, has provided 50 apartments for health professionals or members of the security forces. “Seven or eight are already being used”, said Rolo.

Moving on to Lagoa, the municipality has two school pavilions ready: that of the Jacinto Correia School and that of the Secondary School. "They are clean and disinfected, with a total capacity of 140 beds," said Mayor Luís Encarnação.

In Castro Marim, the “Lar de Altura”, a new building that will be inaugurated soon, has gained a new role, even before it began operating, as it is already ready to receive up to 70 people in quarantine, if necessary.

Next door, in Vila Real de Santo António, the City Council has already identified the Municipal Pavilion, next to the Health Center, as the best place to accommodate anyone in need if it becomes necessary.

In Loulé, Mayor Vítor Aleixo, told press that the Municipal Pavilion, also close to the Health Centre, already has all the material required to be able to receive people. He assured that in the municipality there are also other places to be prepared.

With this in mind, thankfully it is clear that the authorities are painting a reassuring picture of the preparations that they have put in place to serve the population if it becomes necessary.

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