COVID-19 | Daily Update
June 17, 2020
Wednesday, June 17th | COVID-19 Daily Update
CURRENT OUTLOOK
The data released today by the Portuguese General Directorate (DGS), in the daily epidemiological bulletin, indicate that in the last 24 hours there was one death and 336 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Portugal.
The number of fatalities rose from 1,522 to 1,523, while confirmed cases increased from 37,336 to 37,672.
The number of people recovered increased from 23,212 to 23,580.
Lisbon and the Tagus Valley had 282 confirmed cases, thus remaining the most problematic region in Portugal.
PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL
Prime Minister António Costa defended, in declarations to CNN, that Portugal is a safe destination for tourists, claiming that it was one of the European countries that carried out the most tests and that it presents better indicators in the control of COVID-19.
A group of citizens created the civic movement #SOSSNS and presented ten measures that include “increasing access to healthcare for all” and through an “exceptional program” to recover within a year the activity impaired by COVID-19.
The president of the Portuguese Guild of Nurses section in the Azores said he was concerned about an eventual second wave of COVID-19 in the archipelago due to the tiredness of those health professionals in the region.
The founder and president of the Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave, says that the Web Summit will take place in Lisbon this year with the “most stringent health protocols” and following all Government regulations.
In a study on remote work from the “Barómetro COVID-19,” more than half (54%) of the respondents said they are satisfied with the situation, but only 37% expressed satisfaction with the balance between remote work and personal life.
Another survey, on the impact of COVID-19 on journalism in Portugal, reveals that 92% of journalists assume that they tried to guide citizens towards recommended behaviours during the state of emergency, in a logic of public service.
PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
The United States recorded an additional 840 deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 116,000 in the country. There were also 24,919 new cases.
Brazil yesterday accounted for more than a thousand daily deaths by COVID-19, having registered 1,282 deaths and 34,918 infected in the last 24 hours, a new daily record of cases of infection.
Meanwhile, the President of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, has announced that he is infected with the new coronavirus, and also his wife, Ana García.
China has diagnosed 44 new cases of COIVD-19 in the past 24 hours, including 31 in Beijing after an outbreak detected in the capital’s main supply market. The two Beijing airports today cancelled altogether more than 1,200 air connections.
In India, more than two thousand deaths were recorded due to COVID-19 in a single day, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 11,903.
The New Zealand prime minister handed over border surveillance to the army after new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the archipelago.
In Europe, Germany recorded an additional 30 deaths and 345 cases of infection in the last 24 hours.
The number of new cases in Russia during the past 24 hours is 7,843, the lowest daily figure recorded since the beginning of May.
The World Wide Fund for Nature warns that the risk of a new zoonosis, a disease transmitted by animals to man, “is higher than ever”. “Humanity has broken the relationship with nature and that has a cost”, predicts the report entitled “COVID-19: an urgent appeal to protect people and nature”.
MEDICAL PROGRESS
The European Commission today presented a strategy to accelerate the development, manufacture, and go-to-market of vaccines against COVID-19 in the EU, to achieve “safe and effective” treatments within a year, “if not before”.
Dexamethasone is the first drug with positive results in patients who needed to be connected to a ventilator or to receive oxygen. The announcement comes from a group of researchers at the University of Oxford. The World Health Organization (WHO) has already revealed that this discovery is “scientific progress”.
Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi plans to invest around 610 million euros in two new centres for research and production of the vaccine against COVID-19 in France.
Researchers from the Portuguese Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) will try to identify, through blood samples from patients, markers related to iron metabolism that may be used to classify the severity of COVID-19.
In another research at the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, it will be studied tumour tissues of patients with COVID-19 who were operated on during the pandemic outbreak, to see if the new coronavirus infects tumour cells and changes their behaviour.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Banco de Portugal predicts a 9.5% drop in GDP for this year, the biggest contraction since 1928. If these forecasts are confirmed, which represents a drop of 20.2 billion euros (ME) in GDP, the 15.5 thousand ME that are expected to come from the EU on a non-refundable basis for the recovery of the economy may not be enough.
Banco de Portugal also reveals that, had it not been for foreign purchases, house sales would have fallen sharply during the pandemic. In May, there were signs of a revitalization of the real estate market.
The Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, guaranteed yesterday in parliament that the diploma that allows the extension of the simplified lay-off until the end of July will be approved this week. The minister also revealed that Social Security will directly pay workers the bonus provided for those who were in a lay-off.
Portugal is among the countries in the Eurozone most exposed to reduced exports in the tourism sector due to COVID-19, together with Cyprus, Malta, and Greece, according to an article released by the ECB.
The Super Bock Group has decided to reduce its workforce by 10% due to the impact of the pandemic, the company announced in a statement without specifying the number of employees to dismiss.
In Japan, a trade deficit of 6.9 billion euros was recorded in May, the government announced. The negative balance represents a 13.7% drop compared to the same period last year and a 10.6% decrease compared to April.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
After having climbed more than 2% in yesterday’s session, following the strong gains of European counterparts, the Portuguese stock exchange started today with a slight rise. The PSI-20 is increasing by 0.17% to 4,439.94 points.
The main European stock exchanges opened on a high today. This morning, London, Paris, and Frankfurt advanced 0.80%, 1.06%, and 0.52%, respectively, as well as those of Madrid and Milan, which rose 0.11% and 0.74%.
