One of the two positive cases of the new coronavirus in Portugal has already been validated in the counter-analysis and the other will still be sent to the Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute for validation, announced Marta Temido, Minister of Health, at a press conference this morning .
According to the official, the two men, one 60 years old and the other 33, admitted to hospitals in Porto, are in a "steady state".
Although the analyzes of the 33-year-old man have already been sent to the Ricardo Jorge Institute, "there is still no definitive confirmation". "However, as the local and hospital laboratories have done the tests several times and have always been positive, even locally there are two laboratories that did the analysis, we are already sharing this information", said Marta Temido.
One of those infected is a 60-year-old doctor, who was on vacation in northern Italy, and who started having symptoms on February 29th. The other positive case, the 33-year-old man, who started having symptoms on February 26, was in Valencia, Spain.
Marta Temido stressed that people who come to Portugal from affected areas and who may have had contact with patients should carry out an "active surveillance" of symptoms and contact the Saúde 24 line, to receive advice.
"It will be case by case and depending on the contact and advice obtained through that contact that other measures may be defined," he explained.
The minister also added that, to flights coming from Italy, measures will be applied to “trace contacts and increase information to those who come from these regions, in order to insist that people be aware of their health status and that, if have any symptoms, contact the NHS 24, instead of going to the health services».
For her part, Graça Freitas, Director-General of Health, who also participated in the press conference, announced that the health authorities "are committed to detecting" all the people with whom the two infected men have contacted.
Graça Freitas emphasizes that «we are in a containment phase and we will continue». The two confirmed cases “do not increase our level of prevention and preparation, but generate a very important second line which is the detection of direct contacts in these cases”.
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