COVID-19 | Daily Update

Wednesday, July 8th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK

The Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) daily epidemiological bulletin published today records two more deaths and 443 new cases of infection with COVID-19 in Portugal in the last 24 hours (+1.00%).  

The number of deaths rose from 1,629 to 1,631 and the total number of confirmed cases increased from 44,416 to 44,859 (+0.12%). 

The number of people recovered rose by 269 people (+0.91%) being now 29,714.

 

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL

The president of the Portuguese Guild of Medical Doctors sustains that the evolution of the disease in the country – an increase of infections, deaths, and hospitalizations – is due to the lack of means to fight the pandemic.  

In the same line of thought, the Commission for Monitoring the National Response in Intensive Care Medicine, created by the Government, concludes that these services have serious shortages of human resources and points to the risk of exhaustion and burnout. 

In the face of the outbreak in Alentejo, Alexandre Valentim Lourenço, president of the Southern Regional Council of the Portuguese Guild of Medical Doctors, explained that health professionals do not agree with the plan outlined by ARS Alentejo and that they consider they should provide care in the hospital and not at home.  

Regarding the same case, the director of ACES Alentejo resigned after what she classified as “arbitrary measures” concerning the outbreak in Reguengos de Monsaraz.

In the North, the Paços de Ferreira Town Hall was closed today after four positive cases of COVID-19 were registered. 

In Caldas da Rainha, regarding the outbreak with origin in a kindergarten, seven more people are infected. 

In Guarda after a party attended by several students from the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, there are at least 23 people infected with the virus. 

It is necessary to go back until May 8th, in the epidemiological bulletin of DGS, to find a change in the Portuguese cases of COVID-19 imported from Spain. In response, the health entity admits that “the data is not completely up to date”, although they should not be too far from the reality since the imported contagion now has a “reduced impact”.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

US President Donald Trump has officially withdrawn the country from the World Health Organization (WHO), which he accuses of mismanagement of the pandemic. 

Still, at the American continent, the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, at a time when the country totals 66,741 deaths and 1,668,589 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic. 

WHO experts are travelling this weekend to China to prepare an international mission aiming to discover the origin of the new coronavirus, the agency’s secretary-general announced yesterday. 

Regarding the official data from Beijing, there have been no new cases in the past 24 hours, for the second consecutive day, the Chinese authorities said.  

Beijing has suspended imports of meat from several companies in the face of outbreaks of COVID-19 among slaughterhouse workers in different countries, which have heightened fears that imported food may contribute to the disease transmission.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS 

The WHO admitted yesterday that there is new evidence of the coronavirus transmission through the air and recommended everyone to avoid closed spaces and use a face mask. 

Six Indian companies are developing vaccines and, last week, the Government of India gave two of them, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, permission to start clinical trials in humans. 

An element present in human DNA and which was inherited from the Neanderthal man can promote complications in those infected with COVID-19, a new study reveals. 

Regarding symptoms, in the United Kingdom, three out of four infected people were asymptomatic. This is the main finding of a study by the British Office for National Statistics.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

This year’s recession in Portugal will be more violent than the Great Depression. 

The data for the recession in Portugal (for 2020, the year of the new collapse) comes from the new interim projections advanced yesterday by the European Commission. 

The country thus emerges with the fourth largest recession in 2020, after Italy, Spain, and France.  

The economic downturn and forecasts worsen for almost all countries, except for Germany, Greece, and Lithuania.  

Regarding unemployment, the rate in OECD countries will reach 9.4% in 2020, a level higher than that seen in the financial crisis of 2008, due to the pandemic, which could be aggravated by new outbreaks, the organization announced today.

The Portuguese Government admits the possibility of a wave of redundancies occurring with the end of the simplified lay-off regime, which allowed several companies to face the impact of the pandemic.  

Still, in the field of work, USI (Independent Union’s Union) reports that it has been following the impacts of COVID-19 in Portugal with attention and concern, namely in the forms of work organization, in general, but with particular emphasis in the field of remote work.

In Lisbon, after the Metropolitan Area was subject to more restrictive measures to contain the cases of COVID-19, gas stations can now operate normally until 10 pm and from that time exclusively to sell fuel and supplying vehicles.  

The French National Institute of Statistics today forecasted a 9% drop in GDP in France in 2020, a figure lower than the Government’s forecasts, which points to a reduction of 11%. Faced with the possibility of a second wave, the new French Prime Minister Jean Castex dismissed the idea of new total confinement of the country to preserve the economy, preferring to implement “targeted” measures.

Yesterday, the African Development Bank said the pandemic could send nearly 50 million Africans into extreme poverty and destroy up to 30 million jobs, mainly in central and western Africa.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Portuguese stock exchange opened with the PSI-20 falling by 0.55% to 4,427.68 points.

Pressing the performance of the index are 14 listed that are in red, leaving only one isolated in green and three unchanged. 

Abroad, the sentiment is also negative, with investors worried about the evolution of the pandemic.