COVID-19 | Daily Update

Monday, June 29th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK

The Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) daily epidemiological bulletin published today registers four more deaths and 266 new cases of infection with COVID-19 in Portugal in the last 24 hours. 

The number of deaths rose from 1,564 to 1,568 and the total number of confirmed cases increased from 41,646 to 41,912. 

The number of people recovered increased from 27,066 to 27,205, meaning plus 139.

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL

The Portuguese Prime Minister warns that the negative evolution of the economy in all countries requires a European agreement as early as July, and admits that Spanish minister Nadia Calvino succeeds Mário Centeno as president of the Eurogroup. 

There have been more than 2,500 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past seven days. The 457 new infected confirmed yesterday is a new high for June. Of these, more than 85% were registered in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo – 391, the largest number of new ones infected by COVID-19 since May 6th. 

The Working Conditions Authority, the DGS and the Social Security Institute have created a crisis office to contain the contagion risks that exist in the construction sector and to raise awareness among the entire community about the need for prevention in the fight against the pandemic.

The CDS-PP right-wing party defends a strengthening of the collaboration of the Navy in the beaches, mainly in the unattended ones, and extraordinary support to allow the concessionaires to adopt rules of hygiene and safety in the fight against COVID-19.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD 

The British Government today publishes the list of countries that will be included in the first “air corridors” with the United Kingdom from the beginning of July, with doubts still regarding the inclusion of Portugal.

The coronavirus pandemic has already caused 10.2 million infections worldwide. More than 504,000 people died and 5.5 million recovered from the virus. 

In China, 12 new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the past 24 hours, including seven in Beijing, officials said today.

The death toll in Africa has risen to 9,657, up 173 from yesterday to today in more than 382,000 cases, according to the latest data on the continent’s pandemic.

The Robert Koch Institute announced today that in the past 24 hours 262 new ones have been diagnosed in Germany.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS

The Faculty of Medicine of Porto is developing a project that aims to assess and compare the inflammatory status and resolution of inflammation in patients infected with the new coronavirus, as well as to identify new therapeutic targets.

The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced a partnership with the University of Oxford and AztraZeneca to transfer technology and produce the vaccine against COVID-19 locally.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

A study by the Strategy and Studies Office of the Ministry of Economy admits that in the future it will be necessary to cut spending or raise taxes to pay the enormous debt accumulated due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic sentiment recovered around 30% of the falls in March and April, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, having registered a record monthly rise in the euro area and the EU in June, according to European Commission data.

The casinos in Lisbon and Estoril will be forced, as of July 1st, to close at 20:00, according to the resolution of the Ministers’ Council published in Diário da República (Government’s Official Journal). 

The bars still have no date to open. In Galicia they open on July 1st and, in addition to wearing a mask, customers have to leave their cell phone number. 

The average value at which banks assess homes in the context of mortgage loans rose again in May, reaching a new high.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Portuguese stock market is going down, with the PSI-20 falling 0.25% to 4,348.21 points.

Stock markets have largely lost ground this week, as has oil, due to fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Fitch rating agency cut Canada’s sovereign rating from AAA to AA+, citing the country’s deteriorating public finances in 2020 due to the pandemic.