COVID-19 | Daily Update

Thursday, June 11th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK 

It was announced today, at the daily press conference of the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS), that in Portugal, in the last 24 hours, there were 7 more deaths and 310 new people infected with COVID-19. 

The daily epidemiological bulletin shows that the number of fatalities rose from 1,497 to 1,504 (+0.47%), while confirmed cases increased from 35,600 to 35,910 (+0.87%).  

The number of people recovered today is 260, thus rising to 22,002 people recovered by COVID-19 (+1.20%).

 

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL 

The resumption of non-urgent surgical activity in hospitals should take into account the clinical severity, the waiting time that has already elapsed, and the possibility of the surgery being performed on an outpatient basis, according to a rule of the DGS.

DGS has also published a guide with recommendations divided by themes that can be adapted to different sectors of activity, such as aesthetics, teaching, or catering, which aims to facilitate the search for guidelines with measures to mitigate COVID-19.

The Minister of Health announced the appointment of a regional intervention office in Lisbon and Tagus Valley to combat COVID-19 since it is the region that continues to record the highest number of new cases.  

Meanwhile, the long weekend and Popular Saints led the Lisbon City Council to create new rules for the operation of restaurants, coffee-shops, and convenience stores.

The Azores registered again, 23 days later, a case of COVID-19, in Terceira island, being a 28-year-old man, coming from the continental Portugal, who travelled in a military aircraft, informed the Regional Health Authority.

With a significant portion aimed at linking term workers called to reinforce services during the pandemic, the Supplementary Budget has 206 million euros to hire staff for the National Health Service.

The control of people at the borders between Portugal and Spain will remain effective until June 30th, was confirmed today by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Infarmed (Portuguese Authority on Medicines and Health Products) ordered the suspension of commercialization of a rapid test to detect immunity to COVID-19 and ordered the collection of the affected batch. Two false-negative results were detected leading to this decision.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

The World Health Organization (WHO) assumed that it was not aware of whether the new coronavirus acts differently with changes in temperature in different seasons. 

The European Aviation Safety Agency is convinced that the resumption of air travel in the community space “will not contribute to the spread” of COVID-19, as long as sanitary rules are followed to avoid “risky situations”. The Agency predicts that air traffic this summer in the EU will drop by up to 50% in July and August, compared to 2019, following more restrained tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Former US State Department planner Edward Fishman warned today that the changes forced by the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to the establishment of new world order in the next one to five years.

Austria will lift travel restrictions on 31 European countries next Tuesday, keeping them with Portugal, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Spain, the Austrian Foreign Minister announced.

The US recorded 1,082 deaths due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 112,833,000 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil recorded 1,274 deaths and 32,913 infected by the new coronavirus, totalling 39,680 deaths and 772,416 infected since the beginning of the pandemic in the country, said the government today.

Germany today registered 555 more confirmed cases and 26 deaths associated with COVID-19. According to this latest update by the Robert Koch Institute, the country now has 185,416 infected and 8,755 fatalities.

According to today’s epidemiological bulletin, another 10 new cases were registered in Belgium in the last 24 hours, increasing to a total of 59,711. Another 16 deaths were also reported, totalling 9,636 deaths in the country.

China has diagnosed 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, officials said today. The China Health Commission has indicated that the new cases come from abroad.

Africa now has almost 210,000 cases of COVID-19, accounting for 209,438 infected and 5,678 dead, according to the African Union’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS

Pfizer, Sanofi, and Merck are among the pharmaceutical giants devoting efforts to developing a vaccine or treatment that can help the world survive the COVID-19 pandemic. Altogether, there are at least 13 companies in the sector in a race against time. 

A drug currently used to treat patients with lymphoma may be effective in helping COVID-19 patients with more acute forms of the disease, according to preliminary results from a study conducted in the USA.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The Portuguese Government already sees the restructuring plan for TAP as inevitable after receiving the capital injection of 1.2 billion euros, authorized yesterday by the European Commission. And it admits a strengthening of the state’s position in the company. 

The pandemic reversed the downward trend in unemployment in the municipality of Lisbon: in April there were 2,825 more unemployed. Most of these people have reached the end of the employment contract and it has not been renewed.

The former president of the Eurogroup questions how Europe will help different countries to face the economic crisis. Jeroen Dijsselbloem believes that it is not up to each government to manage the funds it will receive alone, but Brussels. 

France lost half a million jobs in the first quarter of the year, the biggest quarterly reduction at least since 1990, reported today the French National Institute of Statistics, which also revealed that French industrial production fell 20.1% in April, a percentage that compares with the decrease of 16.2% registered in March.

The revision of the forecast for the North American GDP of the Fed points to a sharper decline than was anticipated by analysts. The Federal Reserve estimates the unemployment rate in the US to be 9.3%.

Lufthansa warned that up to 22,000 full-time jobs at the German airline are in jeopardy, at a meeting with major unions to negotiate a cost-cutting program.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Portuguese stock exchange is trading down for the sixth consecutive session with the PSI-20 sliding 1.73% to 4,405.82 points – the lowest value since the beginning of the month – and only two quoted with a positive sign.

The US equity markets ended yesterday mixed, with the Nasdaq technological index breaking its third consecutive record and surpassing the ten thousand point barrier for the first time.

The collapse of oil prices to negative values generated sharp losses for many investors and producers of this raw material. Goldman Sachs’ raw materials trading unit recorded the best start of the year in the last decade.