COVID-19 | Daily Update
July 7, 2020
Tuesday, July 7th | COVID-19 Daily Update
CURRENT OUTLOOK
The Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) today announced the registration of nine deaths and 287 new infections of COVID-19 in Portugal.
The daily epidemiological report shows that the fatalities rose from 1,620 to 1,629 while the number of infected people increased from 44,129 to 44,416.
It was also announced that there are also 279 people recovered, bringing the number of people recovered by COVID-19 to 29,445.
PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL
With a new technical meeting approaching, in which indicators are expected to make it possible to understand whether the country should maintain a three-speed deconfinement, with 19 parishes in Greater Lisbon Area in a state of calamity, the state of play on COVID-19 done daily by DGS has changed in the last few days and data available to the public are now less.
Last night, the President of the Republic met with representatives of the healthcare sector and with mayors in Monte Gordo, in the municipality of Vila Real de Santo António, Algarve.
António Costa, on the other hand, invited Britons to spend their holidays in the “safe” Algarve, but the region confirmed more cases of the virus per population in the last seven days than 39 out of 41 regions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Food and Economic Security Authority has seized 627,000 FFP face masks for not complying with the legal protection requirements.
PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
Does the new coronavirus spread through the air? A group of 239 scientists asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to review the recommendations it has given for preventing COVID-19. The organization will review the position it gave to The New York Times.
Australian authorities announced today that they will impose confinement for six weeks in Melbourne, a city of about 4.9 million people, after the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has shown symptoms of COVID-19. The Brazilian President suspects he is infected because he has a fever and is awaiting the results of a new examination, having already cancelled all appointments. This was the day that the country registered an additional 602 deaths and 26,051 infections.
In the world, COVID-19 is still very active. In the United States, there were 54,999 infected in the last 24 hours and increased the total number of confirmed cases to 2,931,142, according to a report by Johns Hopkins University.
Argentina reported 75 deaths, a daily record since the beginning of the pandemic, which has already caused 1,582 deaths in the country.
In Germany, 390 infections were recorded, an increase of 0.2% compared to yesterday’s epidemiological report.
India recorded 467 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 20,160, on a day when the country has exceeded 700,000 infections since the start of the pandemic.
South Africa is the fifth country in the world with the highest number of active cases, exceeding 3,300 deaths and 200,000 contagions due to the spread in Pretoria and Johannesburg in the past two weeks.
Beijing has not registered a new case for the first time since the beginning of June when an outbreak was detected in a supply market in the south of the Chinese capital city.
MEDICAL PROGRESS
With Indian scientists stressing that the deadline for launching the vaccine against COVID-19 for public use is “unfeasible”, the Indian Council of Medical Research has adjusted its position and has already come to note that the said date “is not a deadline”.
Tesla’s CEO announced that he is helping CureVac develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus. “Basically,” this is “a software problem,” said Elon Musk.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The European Commission (EC) today worsened its economic forecasts for Portugal this year in the face of the shocks of COVID-19, now estimating a contraction of 9.8% of GDP, well above the previous projection of 6.8% and that of the Government, of 6,9%.
The European Commissioner for Economy said today that the worsening projection for the contraction of the Portuguese economy is mainly due to recovery below the expected in the tourism sector, and mentioned the late reopening of the borders with Spain.
Some United Nations (UN) researchers say the world is addressing the economic and health symptoms of the pandemic rather than addressing the environmental causes that created it.
Concerning job support measures adopted in OECD countries, they should be limited in time, but not inflexible, allowing adjustments to be made according to the evolution and effects of the pandemic.
The Ikea Portugal group will return around 500,000 euros of support received from the Portuguese Government, only in the component of employees’ salaries during the period in which they were in a lay-off.
Today, a report “Employment Perspectives” was released, in which the OECD points out the “unprecedented” and rapid response that most of the countries that integrate it gave to the first phase of the pandemic as a way to mitigate the impact on the economy, on companies, on employment and household income, but refers to the need for measures to be redesigned and adjusted to the economic reopening phase.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
The Portuguese Stock Index PSI-20 started the day on the negative ground, with a fall of 0.8% to 4,372.01 points and being pressured by 13 falling stocks.
The Portuguese stock exchange follows the performance of European counterparts, in a session in which the shares correct the maximum of one month they reached the day before.
