The authorities have so far registered at least 37 positive cases of COVID -19 related to the illegal party held in the municipality of Lagos on the 9th of June, rising from the 16 cases announced yesterday. The cases were identified throughout several locations in the Algarve.
According to the Público newspaper, the Director-General of Health, Graça Freitas, has not ruled out “the possibility that the number will already have risen in the meantime”. This is due to the fact that the “37 positive cases associated with that event, which contradicted the rules of the General-Board of Health, involved the gathering of several dozen people in an enclosed space, at the sports club in the village of Odiáxere”, and that since the gathering nearly a week and a half ago, individuals will have had time to enter into contact with other friends and family.
According to the same publication, the Director-General of Health stated that small “sanitary defences” are being outlined for the infected families' households. The objective "is to contain these people who have fallen ill, who have families and close contacts" and, therefore, there must be "containment rings" for them. If not, "they will give rise to transmission chains outside these environments".
Lagos Municipal Council, local security forces, and health authorities are regarding the event as an active contagion focal point, the municipality said today. "The origin of this outbreak, which called into question the good performance achieved so far in terms of the numbers of the pandemic, is being attributed to the organization of an illegal event, which took place a few days ago, which brought together a large number of people" , says the municipality on its website.
Although not yet included in the daily report of the Directorate-General for Health, the Municipality of Lagos states that "there are already some positive confirmed cases from testing, with the competent entities carrying out tests, determining isolation measures and identifying possible contagion chains, so that the focus is as soon as possible circumscribed and controlled". A situation that, for the municipality, "could have been avoided had it not been for the failure to comply with the preventive measures that have been constantly disclosed".
The statement also stresses that "the Mayor therefore calls on all citizens, residents, visitors, and economic operators, who, as far as possible, can resume their activities, but do so with a great sense of responsibility and all the care and measures that are recommended for the health of the individual and the well-being of the whole community.
