The Algarve “has not had major outbreaks” of Covid-19, but the number of cases has soared in recent days and Ana Cristina Guerreiro, regional Health delegate, admits that this could be due to the Delta variant. Although there is still no such confirmation, the regional health authorities sent 100 samples to the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge and await the results of the analyses.
According to the latest data, revealed this Friday, after days with 90 and 72 cases of Covid-19, there were 92 more infections.
Currently, the region has an incidence rate of 107 cases per 100 inhabitants, which "worries".
This sudden rise comes after a period of two weeks in which the region presented an average number of 26 cases per day.
Ana Cristina Guerreiro added that, currently, there are no major outbreaks in the region. One of the largest, detected in the Christmas Tower Home for the Elderly, in Faro, has 21 active cases, many of them in people who have already been vaccinated.
“This home has 54 residents and 27 professionals. There are 15 positive residents and six employees. Of these six, four were not vaccinated by choice. And of the 15 positive residents, only two were not vaccinated», revealed the person in charge.
This outbreak has already led to the hospitalization of two people.
According to Ana Cristina Guerreiro, in this situation, “what is surprising is the large number of positive cases in vaccinated people. Therefore, we have already sent samples to try to understand the variant involved».
And could the variant be Delta? “So far, according to INSA data, three weeks ago, three cases with this variant have been detected in the Algarve. But we did the study and they were linked cases that didn't create secondary cases. In the following weeks, no more cases appeared in the Algarve».
But now, suspicions have led to the sending of «100 samples, some randomly and others at our request, namely in the case of the home», said Ana Cristina Guerreiro.
Asked whether the increase in cases could be due to British tourists who started arriving in the Algarve in mid-May, the health delegate says that it is difficult "to establish a direct relationship, what I know about the outbreaks", even because "the region opened on May 17th and cases shot up on June 15th. Therefore, we hypothesize that it is a more transmissible variant», he reinforced.
About the pressure on hospitals, Ana Cristina Guerreiro said that there are 18 people hospitalized in the region, four of them in intensive care.
Paulo Morgado, president of the Regional Health Administration, for his part, said that among the patients in need of hospital care, 10 are at the Hospital de Faro and 4 in Portimão.
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