Twenty-six counties in Portugal are above the Covid-19 incidence risk threshold, and may not advance in the deconfinement plan if the situation remains, according to the epidemiological bulletin released yesterday.
According to the bulletin of the Directorate-General for Health, in the last 14 days these counties registered more than 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, seven of which are even above the 240 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants.
Machico, in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, is the county in the country with the highest incidence, registering 500 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the last 14 days, ranking at a very high risk, that is, with an incidence between 480 and 959.9 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants.
On March 11th, at the presentation of the deconfinement plan, the Prime Minister, António Costa, warned that the reopening measures will be revised whenever Portugal exceeds the “120 new cases per day per 100 thousand inhabitants in 14 days” or whenever the Rt - the average number of secondary cases that result from a case infected by the virus - exceeds 1.
According to the DGS epidemiological bulletin, the transmissibility index (Rt) of the new coronavirus in Portugal has yesterday risen to 1 on the continent, but the incidence has dropped to 60.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days.
António Costa stressed that the experts heard by the Government proposed that, "if in two successive assessments, the same counties are above the risk threshold, in these counties the measures of deconfinement must not advance".
Yesterday's bulletin reveals that the Algarve municipalities at risk are Albufeira (161), Lagoa (141), Portimão (308) and Vila do Bispo (213).
Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/
