COVID-19 | Daily Update

Friday, June 19th | 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 375 new infections of COVID-19 in Portugal. 

The epidemiological report shows that deaths rose from 1,524 to 1,527 while the number of infected people increased from 38,089 to 38,464. 

The number of people recovered increased from 24,010 to 24,477, 467 more than yesterday.

Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region is still the one with the highest number of new infections. From June 1st to June 15th, this area had 3986 new cases, representing an increase of 35.5% in just two weeks.

 

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL

On the day that the first death by COVID-19 of a Portuguese medical doctor is known, the Ministry of Health already expressed its condolences, and the president of the Portuguese Guild Medical Doctors, Miguel Guimarães, told Antena 1 radio that “the number of infected doctors is higher than the Government has announced”.

António Lacerda Sales, Secretary of State for Health, said this Thursday that the Government also wants to recover 25% of the surgeries that were not carried out because of the pandemic of COVID-19. 

The Metropolitan Areas of Lisbon and Porto concentrate 65% of the country’s total cases. The average number of new cases per day in the last 30 days is ten times higher in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon than in the Metropolitan Area of Porto. 

The president of the Algarve Intermunicipal Community yesterday accused the Portuguese Guild of Medical Doctors of being “alarmist” about the regional response capacity to eventual outbreaks of COVID-19 and praised the role of the regional authorities in the Lagos outbreak. 

Madeira registered a positive case yesterday for COVID-19, after 42 days without any new infections, being a person who arrived at the airport, last Wednesday, from Lisbon, informed the regional health authority.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 450,386 people and has infected more than 8.4 million worldwide since December, according to an AFP news agency report, based on official country data.  

The United States has recorded 687 deaths from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of deaths to more than 118,000 since the epidemic began, Johns Hopkins University said. 

China has diagnosed 32 new cases, including 25 in Beijing and four from abroad. 

The Government of Japan reiterated today that it will begin to progressively lift the ban on citizens from more than a hundred nations entering the country, although without giving any date. 

The Spanish government is going to make an upward revision today of the number of deaths in the country due to COVID-19, to “about 28 thousand”, from the current 27,136, since it has been unchanged since 7th of June.

According to the latest data released by the Robert Koch Institute, Germany recorded 16 more deaths and 770 cases of infection over the last 24 hours.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS

According to the recent World Health Organization (WHO) accounts, there are a total of 139 studies of vaccines against COVID-19 in progress, 11 of which are in the testing phase in humans. 

Governments are attentive to developments and some countries are positioning themselves to guarantee millions of doses from the laboratories with the most promising projects.

The blood group and other genetic factors can dictate the severity of infection with the new coronavirus. The discovery was made in a European investigation whose aim is to understand why COVID-19 affects certain people more severely.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Workers who were in lay-off and entitled to a salary supplement payable in July must have the data updated on the Social Security web portal, otherwise, they may not have access to this extraordinary support.

Yesterday, the Ministers’ Council approved the decree for the creation of a Banco Português de Fomento, to fill gaps in the credit market within a framework of needs that were greatly increased by the pandemic. Banco de Portugal still has to give its consent and get the green light European Competition. 

The Portuguese economy continued to decrease in May, but less than in the previous month. The conclusion is from INE (Portuguese Statistics Bureau) and is included in the summary of the economic indicators published today. 

The President of the European Parliament today told the leaders of the 27 that “EU citizens, businesses and economies need an immediate response” to the crisis, which cannot be less ambitious than that proposed by the Commission. The President of the European Commission, on the other hand, urged European leaders to focus on the essentials in discussions about the recovery plan to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, arguing that Europe cannot waste this opportunity. 

The UK’s deficit widened in May, prompting the British government’s debt to exceed 100% of GDP for the first time since 1963.

The Italian tax administration has announced that it will provide a “holiday bonus” for low-income families that can go up to 150 euros for single parents, 300 euros for couples and 500 euros for families of three or more people, to recover the country’s tourism sector.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS 

The main European Stock Exchanges opened on a high today, but remain very pending on the new outbreaks of COVID-19 around the world, which could jeopardize the return of activity and the economic recovery. 

The Portuguese Stock Index PSI-20 was up 0.39% at the start of the session to 4,445.71 points, while the EuroStoxx 600 was up 0.46% to 365.08 points. 

At the exchange rate level, the euro opened today higher on the Frankfurt exchange market, at $ 1.1217, against $ 1,1194 on Thursday.

The interest rates on the Portuguese debt today were falling for two and five years and rising for ten years compared to Thursday.