COVID-19 | Daily Update
June 3, 2020
Wednesday, June 3rd | COVID-19 Daily Update
CURRENT OUTLOOK
According to the epidemiological report released today by the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS), in the last 24 hours, there were 11 more deaths and 366 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Portugal, 92% of which in Lisbon area.
The daily bulletin reports that the number of fatalities rose from 1,436 to 1,447, while confirmed cases increased from 32,895 to 33,261 (+1.1%).
An additional 210 people recovered from the disease were registered, totalling now 20,079.
PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL
Of a total of 1,151 ventilators purchased by the Ministry of Health to China, only 264 arrived in Portugal, that is, only about 23% of the total purchased. The rest are held in China, with 443 at the Portuguese embassy in Beijing, and 444 have not yet been delivered by Chinese suppliers to the embassy.
The Armed Forces are keeping a large part of their structure on the ground to help fight the pandemic, with more than 6,100 beds, having already produced 151,000 litres of alcohol gel, the Government said.
The number of vaccines administered in May fell by more than 40% compared to the same month of 2019, reaching 300,693, according to data from the NHS Portal. The data, updated until the 27th, indicate that in May 2019, 519,234 vaccines had been administered.
Principals and teachers agree: the evaluation system traditionally applied in the vast majority of schools must be reformed. This transformation can be instigated by the adaptation that schools have already been forced to make, due to distance learning.
Meanwhile, the football Premier League returns today. The remaining ten rounds will be played in special conditions and just seven weeks.
PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
Italy allows, as of today, free movement between its regions and opens the borders with the rest of the European Union (EU), after being three months closed due to the pandemic.
In the last 24 hours, Brazil has again surpassed the barrier of 1,000 daily deaths by COVID-19, having recorded 1,262 fatalities, in a total of 31,199 fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic.
The United States also recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to COVID-19, increasing to more than 106,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the count made by Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico recorded 470 deaths and 3,891 infections, bringing the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 10,637 and contagions to 97,326.
On the other hand, China diagnosed only one case of infection.
The death toll in Africa due to COVID-19 has now risen to 4,493, plus 149, in more than 157,000 cases in 54 countries, according to the latest pandemic data on the continent.
The Venezuelan President’s Government and Opposition leader Juan Guaidó agreed to jointly seek funds to combat the pandemic in Venezuela.
MEDICAL PROGRESS
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday that 133 potential vaccines are being developed across the world to combat the outbreak of the new coronavirus, with ten of these vaccines currently being tested on humans, notably in the USA, UK, and China.
Russia was the most recent country to join this phase, having announced that testing on 50 soldiers will begin today.
Some doctors claim that taking ibuprofen can be beneficial in the treatment of severe coronavirus. The painkiller can increase the survival rate of critically ill patients by up to 80% and reduce the need for intensive care.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The unemployment rate among young Portuguese people will have risen almost two percentage points in April compared to March, to 20.2%, the highest value since October 2018, when it reached 20.5%.
The number of employed people in Germany fell in April to around 44.8 million, down 210,000 or 0.5% compared to the same month of 2019, according to provisional data released today by the German federal statistical agency.
The Australian economy is set to experience its first recession in three decades. Official data show that the economy shrank 0.3% in the first three months of this year, reflecting the fires that devastated the country and also the restrictions resulting from the pandemic.
The president of the United Nations Economic and Social Council called for urgent action to help the growing number of countries already facing or at risk of indebtedness due to the impact of the new coronavirus.
The pandemic has changed several aspects in the way companies want to hire and what skills to value, reveals a study by Transearch Portugal. The responses of executives from more than 100 companies point out that only a quarter of the companies kept their talent acquisition plans unchanged.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
The main European stock exchanges opened today on positive ground fostered by confidence in the economic recovery and the new economic stimuli of central banks and governments.
Thus, the London, Paris, and Frankfurt stock exchanges advanced 1.25%, 1.01%, and 1.46%, respectively, as well as those in Madrid and Milan, which rose 1.42% and 0.99%.
After having opened up, the Lisbon Stock Exchange maintained the trend and the PSI-20 rose 1.51% to 4,626.10 points.
The interest rate on Portuguese debt, on the other hand, was currently rising two, five, and ten years compared to yesterday, in line with those of Spain, Ireland, and Italy.
