The Minister of Health in Portugal, Marta Temido, today confirmed that there are plans in place to recommend the use of a mask in open spaces this autumn-winter, given the impossibility of maintaining the physical distance rules to help prevention of Covid-19.
“'The legislation currently in force provides for mandatory use for people over 10 years of age in closed public spaces, recommending its use in any open or closed space, whenever the minimum physical distance of two meters is not guaranteed '. Therefore, this is already clearly the direction of the Directorate-General for Health that the ministry strives to enforce”, said the minister at the recent press conference on the evolution of the pandemic.
The explanation came in the wake of today's statements by the President of the Republic, in which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa left the suggestion of using a mask in “circulation on public roads at points of greatest concentration of people”, adding he had already adopted this behaviour “months ago”.
As for the number of outbreaks in schools, the Minister of Health distanced herself from the reading presented this Friday by the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), who put forward a list of 122 schools where cases have already been registered and questioned the DGS data that pointed to only 23 outbreaks.
“We are talking about different things and we cannot confuse the numbers, saying that someone gave wrong numbers when we refer to different concepts and even different dates,” said Marta Temido, seconded by the director-general of health: “One thing is isolated cases, another thing is outbreaks, which, as of today, are 28 in the country, with 175 confirmed cases. It does not mean that there are no other isolated cases”.
Portugal today registered 12 more deaths related to Covid-19 and 1,394 new cases of infection with the new coronavirus, according to the epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).
Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, this is the second highest number of cases of infection. The highest was on April 10, with 1,516.
Portugal has already registered 2,062 deaths and 83,928 cases of infection, with 29,700 cases being active today, 735 more than on Thursday.
Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
Comments
When you lose an argument, hurl insults!![/quote
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Oh well ... people who live in glass houses, should not throw stones.
When you lose an argument, hurl insults!!
Cavalier attitude... you are now being ridiculous... To add to your other ailments !
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Chip, do you have a chip on your shoulder ...
I was not being critical of the excellent Portuguese health system but it is not infallible. I was referring to your need to take your chance with them if you maintain your cavalier attitude,.
You had better start hoping you don't get to be dependent on the Portuguese Health System.
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Chip, do you have a chip on your shoulder ...
You had better start hoping you don't get to be dependent on the Portuguese Health System.
Brook
I agree with you Portugal has an excellent health system with committed staff which I have experienced first hand.
I have never said that they can't cope at the moment but every day more and more people are being hospitalised. Unfortunately, several people are trying to convince us that herd immunity is the answer. I think it is too risky.
As you are reporting on the current Lisbon situation are you not concerned that letting an unknown virus run wild might have a disastrous effect on the health system and economy?
I have not read about the Health services in Portugal struggling with covid19, in fact, with hospital bed capacity in Lisbon, 539 beds were available and 351 beds were occupied for covid19 patients and 66 beds out of 89 beds were occupied by intensive care patients with covid19.
Overall, there is around 81 percent occupancy and these are the figures for the four weeks of Sept
and Oct to date.
Portugal Health system is one of the best Health systems in Europe.
Chip's link to the Lancet publication explains exactly what I think about herd immunity. Releasing an unknown virus causing a disease on the population is unethical.
I have read the Open Letter on Covid herd immunity by Sunetra Gupta and her colleagues but there are several expert questioning her opinion on the Science Media Centre webpage.
I hope immunity will be achieved through vaccination but why is there so much negativity about a vaccine that has not been fully tested? It seems that the virus has already mutated and there are reports of reinfection. So a lot of work still has to be done. My recent flu vaccination contained 3 different strains (inactive viruses) and an immune booster. Who knows perhaps we can take anti-Covid in tablet form twice a year!!??Just wait for the trials to run their course and stop scaring people that our genes will be modified.
Aren't you concerned that even with the New State of calamity measures another 36 have been hospitalised yesterday amounting to over189 covid admissions in the last 7 days.
Steve have you thought what impact a t-rate of 3 would have on the Portuguese Health System?
You just can't compare Sweden with a population density 25 per sqKm with Portugal 111 per sqKm. Are you aware that 40% are single households in Sweden oppose to 8.6% in Portugal? You can't infect someone if you are on your own.
We have not reached the March/April numbers and I hope we never will but that can only be achieved if people show some consideration.
This link should work:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext