«Yesterday [the 9th] we expected that 960 automated extraction reagents would arrive [in the Algarve]. They didn't arrive because the company told us they were held up in Madrid». The revelation was made this Friday by the president of the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve, at the weekly press conference at the headquarters of the Regional Emergency and Civil Protection Command of the Algarve, in Loulé.
Paulo Morgado thus answered a question about the assumed lack of reagents for Covid-19 analysis at the Regional Laboratory.
«Reagents are lacking in Portugal and throughout Europe», he explained, adding that, at the Regional Laboratory Dr. Laura Ayres, «a specific type of reagents» is used, which performs «automated extraction of viral DNA». And it is this reagent that has been missing.
"There is such a great need throughout Europe" that then "these things are happening", lamented the official, referring to the retention of the material ordered in Spain.
Better news was given in relation to hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) ordered by the Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL), in China. António Miguel Pina, president of AMAL, revealed, at the same press conference, that "only yesterday we were able to have part of the order, which is already at the Portuguese embassy in Beijing."
"We now hope that, with the intervention of the Secretary of State, the Government will give priority to transporting them here, on charter planes departing" from China, added António Pina. The secretary of state that Pina was referring to is José Apolinário, who attended the press conference, in his new role as regional coordinator of the fight against Covid-19.
Less luck was the order for fans that AMAL had started by placing. “The fans were purchased, but the company was unable to ship them because the factory was prohibited from selling them. The Chinese government now controls all sales of fans».
In the second offer that the organization of the Algarve mayors had, “the same fans cost three times as much. Until now, we had negotiations, commitments made, but we don't have the fans», he lamented.
Still on the issue of reagents, the president of ARS Algarve announced that "the Government has acquired a significant number of reagents, which will arrive in the next few days", which could eventually help to solve the problem in the region.
In any case, he guaranteed, the situation of scarcity of reagents “never prevented us from delivering the results, because in the National Health Service there is a network functioning”. The tests collected in the Algarve and which should be analyzed at the Regional Laboratory have been sent to Lisbon, to the Hospital de S. José.
“When we can't do analyzes in our laboratory, there are others doing that. There was never any result to give», stressed Paulo Morgado.
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