COVID-19 | Daily Update
June 15, 2020
Monday, June 15th | COVID-19 Daily Update
CURRENT OUTLOOK
The Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) announced today, at the daily press conference, the occurrence of three deaths and 346 new infections of COVID-19 in Portugal.
The epidemiological report shows that deaths rose from 1,517 to 1,520 (+0.20%) while the number of infected people increased from 36,690 to 37,036 (+0.94%).
Lisbon and Tagus Valley is still the area with the highest number of cases in Portugal with 300 new infections.
The number of recovered patients is now 22,852 (+0.81%).
PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL
The Leisure Time Activity Centers (ATL) reopened today and DGS has issued a guidance document for these establishments.
DGS also said that it expects the reopening of shopping centres in the Lisbon region as of today to take place “in an orderly manner”, considering that there will be “even more care” given the focus of contagions.
Today, four border points between Portugal and Spain were reopened, where the passage can be made only for goods and cross-border workers with justification.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, gave, at 1:30 pm, a live class on citizenship for the distance learning project #EstudoEmCasa at RTP Memória, the 21st-century remote school that was set up due to COVID-19.
Today SATA (Azores Airlines) resumes connections between the Portuguese continent and the islands of São Miguel and Terceira. Until now, TAP was the only company to secure connections to the archipelago in the current pandemic scenario.
Mário Dinis-Ribeiro, president of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, admits that the postponement of a large number of endoscopies and colonoscopies, as a result of COVID-19, may harm the screening and surveillance of some of the most prevalent cancers in the Portuguese population.
According to the Portuguese medical doctor Nelson Olim, a consultant to the WHO Academy, from the World Health Organization (WHO), Portugal would be able to alleviate restrictions in the fight against the pandemic, restrict them to groups at risk, and build group immunity.
PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday the total end of the confinement in the entire French territory, lifting restrictions due to COVID-19, and he chose as a priority to build a “strong, ecological, sovereign and supportive” economy.
For the next phase of the reopening plan, the United Kingdom is considering not imposing a mandatory quarantine on those arriving from countries with few cases of infection, announced Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The British Government is still studying the possibility of reducing the physical distance between people from two meters to just one.
The US reached 115,706 deaths yesterday, 436 more than Saturday, and 2,091,348 infections with the new coronavirus, plus 22,141.
Colombia has already surpassed 50 thousand cases, with 2,193 infections and 75 deaths.
At the same time, Brazil registered an additional 612 deaths and 17,110 infected by the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, and a possible relationship of 3,981 deaths with COVID-19 is still being investigated, the Government said.
In Europe, Germany reported four deaths and 192 cases of infection. The daily number of deaths is down from yesterday (in which six deaths were recorded).
In Belgium, six more deaths were recorded. There are now a total of 9,661 deaths from the disease.
Russia accounts for an additional 8,246 new cases of COVID-19. There are already a total of 537,210 infected people since the beginning of the pandemic. The death toll exceeded seven thousand, with 143 more people dying in the last 24 hours.
In Beijing, ten new residential areas have been quarantined, the mayor confirmed today after the Chinese capital had detected 36 new cases of infection in the past 24 hours.
The death toll from COVID-19 in Africa has risen to 6,464, another 220 in the past 24 hours, in about 242,000 cases.
MEDICAL PROGRESS
A team of US researchers at the University of Tulane, Louisiana, is testing VASPR – measles vaccine, epidemic mumps, and rubella – to prevent sepsis, a condition that has already killed thousands of patients with COVID-19.
A group of experts has already published an article in the journal “Science” in which it argues that the polio vaccine may also work against infection with the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
One of the most essential steps in developing a vaccine is testing in humans. And there are already some whose goal is to combat COVID-19 in the human testing phase. It all depends on people who agree to try a vaccine without proven results.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Portugal’s wealth, as measured by GDP, is expected to decline this year to lower levels than in 2018, according to the “Dinheiro Vivo” calculations, based on data from the Supplementary State Budget due to the pandemic.
However, unlike Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Poland, or France, the Portuguese government has not excluded companies with head offices or branches in tax havens outside the EU from public support.
The economists of international investment banks estimate a contraction in GDP in Portugal one percentage point above the amount that the Government entered in the supplementary budget. The forecasts of 16 economists point to a 7.9% recession in Portugal this year.
Banco de Portugal published today an official note where it guarantees that “paying with notes and coins is safe”, although it recommends “always hand hygiene after contact” with physical money.
It was announced today that almost 150 people, who have been homeless in Lisbon until now, have managed to find a home, a room, or a job since the beginning of the pandemic, within the scope of programs developed by the City Council.
The African Development Bank announced that it has already delivered almost 1.8 billion euros to ten African countries to fight the pandemic, which will decrease GDP by $ 88.3 billion.
China’s industrial production recorded a 4.4% year-on-year growth in May, a sign of the recovery of the Chinese economy after the sharp drop in the first quarter, due to measures to fight the pandemic.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
The Portuguese Stock Index PSI-20 opened today to fall 1.46%, to 4,296.22 points, in line with the main European counterparts. Among the 18 listed companies, 14 devalued and four negotiated on positive ground.
The main European stock exchanges opened lower today, with investors worried about possible new outbreaks of COVID-19, mainly in China and the USA.
The London, Paris, and Frankfurt stock exchanges fell 2.35%, 2.66%, and 2.77%, respectively, as well as those in Madrid and Milan, which fell 2.84% and 2.45%.
