There are already 80 patients recovered from Covid-19 in the Algarve, announced this morning the regional Health delegate, during the weekly press conference at the headquarters of the Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command of the Algarve, in Loulé.
Ana Cristina Guerreiro also said that the Algarve region has, at this moment, in accumulated numbers since the beginning of the outbreak, 320 confirmed cases of the disease.
Bearing in mind that there are 11 deaths to be registered so far (there have been no new deaths this week), this means that the Algarve has a much higher resolution rate than the rest of the country. What is the reason for this apparently better situation in the Algarve region? the journalists wanted to know.
The regional Health delegate responded that there are "small contributions" to this happening. First, he explained, "in large regions it is more difficult to quickly find out the number of people recovered, they are regions with very dispersed sources of information." In other words, even at a national level, the number of recovered patients may even be higher than what is known.
"It may also have happened that, here in the Algarve, we found positive patients earlier and that, therefore, they did not develop the disease in such a serious way" before they began to be monitored by the health services, added Ana Cristina Guerreiro.
That responsible also highlighted another possible reason: “the good articulation we have with the hospital”.
What is fact, he explained, is that "we are a smaller region, with a very close laboratory source, so it is easier for us to have access to the data".
At the press conference, the regional Health delegate said that, in the Algarve, there is "a very comfortable situation" in terms of new cases of Covid-19, since, from day to day, "only one or two more are registered" .
Paulo Morgado, president of the Algarve Regional Health Administration (ARS), also present at the press conference, confirmed that “a situation of stability is being lived”. "We now have 80 recovered and we expect that number to increase in the coming days."
The official added that Covid-19 "is a prolonged disease, patients are sometimes three weeks or more positive", and then, "only with two negative tests" are considered cured. That is, until a person is considered recovered, it takes a long time.
Completing the current figures for the region (and even before the usual national daily epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate-General of Health is known), the regional health delegate added that, of the people who are sick, 21 are hospitalized, four of them in intensive care unit.
There are also 345 people under active surveillance by the health authorities, with "9685 people tested with a negative result".
As for the usual sources of concern, and starting with the homes for the elderly, Ana Cristina Guerreiro announced “good news for the home in Boliqueime”. New tests were carried out on employees and residents in that structure and currently there are "only 12 positive residents, of which 9 remain in the home and 3 are hospitalized".
So far, in the screening that the Algarve Biomedical Center it has been doing it to all nursing homes in the region and which has already covered 67,7% of the planned tests, it has not yet been detected any other case of infection by Covid-19 among users or employees.
As for migrant workers, from the agricultural sector and beyond, the regional Health delegate assured that the situation is also under control.
In Tavira, there is a group of «20 positive migrants», who include up to two other foreign workers from other municipalities, namely «one from Silves and one from Albufeira», who were transferred to the ZAP in Santo Estêvão «due to nationality reasons and with your agreement'. In all, 19 migrants of Indian nationality and 1 Nepalese are confined there.
In Albufeira, there is «a positive person», who is confined to a hotel dedicated to this, plus «an apartment with eight migrants, in prophylactic isolation and under surveillance» by the health authorities.
In Armação de Pêra, there is «good news: one of the people who was sick has already had two negative tests and is going back home», already recovered. As for the other group, “there are 5 positive people, in their own home and under the supervision of the health authorities”.
For his part, the president of ARS Algarve said that, "of the 20 health professionals" who became ill with Covid-19, "4 are already recovered".
“We hope that the number of recoveries will increase next week and start to surpass the number of new cases”, in order to “enter the decreasing phase of the curve” [see the figure above], underlined Paulo Morgado.
However, he warned, one cannot let down one's guard, because the “good” numbers in the Algarve have “everything to do with the measures that the population has adopted” and which it will be necessary to maintain.
"The disease will not disappear anytime soon, it will stay with us for many months, until a cure, an effective treatment or a vaccine is found," he said.
“We are already preparing the resumption of some normal activity”, which “will be gradual, taking care to avoid new infections”, admitted Paulo Morgado.
But, warned this official, "the future will not be the same as the past, either in society or in our health services."
Note: Graphics provided by the Algarve District Civil Protection Commission
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