Portugal has “Very Much Lower Covid Incidence Level Than Majority of European Countries”

• 19 April, 21

Portugal has a “very much lower (Covid) incidence level than the majority of countries in Europe”. 

This has been one of the many positives coming out of this morning’s meeting at Infarmed – a precursor to the government deciding on whether the country moves forwards as a bloc to the third stage of deconfinement on Monday (April 19) – or whether some boroughs get ‘left behind’, due to their ostensibly high infection ratios.

Another major plus is the effect the vaccination programme has had on the number of elderly citizens becoming seriously ill and dying.

Epidemiologist Baltazar Nunes of INSA (the national health institute Ricardo Jorge) has told the meeting that between January and April between 78 – 140 deaths have been ‘avoided’; there was a 9-10% reduction in hospital admissions and a 3-5% reduction in the number of beds occupied in intensive care units.

The meeting remains ongoing, with vaccine coordinator Henrique Gouveia e Melo going over the schedule for the arrival of new doses of vaccine through this month (click here), and explaining that by the end of May, beginning of June, all citizens in Portugal over the age of 60 should have received their vaccinations.

Cre: Portugalresident