COVID-19 | Daily Update
April 2, 2020
Wednesday, April 2nd | COVID-19 Daily Update
DGS (Portuguese General Health Directorate) today announced 209 deaths and 9,034 COVID-19 positive confirmed in Portugal. Deaths rose from 187 to 209, up 12%, while the total number of positive cases increased from 8,251 to 9,034 (+9.5%).
PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL
The Prime Minister announced yesterday that the Government has given a favourable opinion to the extension of the state of emergency requested by the President of the Republic for another 15 days. The measure was approved this morning in Parliament, and the legislation will be approved at the meeting of the Council of Ministers. In Madeira, the Regional Government also gave a favourable opinion on the prolongation of the state of emergency for a similar period.
Due to the lack of personnel verified in several places of health care or social support, the PT Government decided to create a measure to encourage the integration of unemployed or part-time workers in hospitals and nursing homes. Regarding the prison system, the Ministry of Internal Administration announced that 20 tents were given to Hospitals, which will allow for greater management and security capacity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Independent Doctors’ Union has warned that some infected patients are ending isolation before further tests are carried out to see if the virus remains active. The situation is more serious in the North.
PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
In the last 24 hours, Spain had an additional 950 deaths, the highest number in a single day since the start of the pandemic and the sixth consecutive day with more than 800 fatalities by COVID-19, exceeding ten thousand. In Italy, about 13,000 people have already died from COVID-19 and a report warns that a “significant number” of people is likely to continue to die until at least mid-April.
According to the Johns Hopkins University, the United States recorded a new daily record of 884 deaths and 25,200 infected people yesterday only, bringing the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,475. A country whose intelligence services accuse China of falsifying data on the severity of the new coronavirus. And in mainland China, about 76,000 of the more than 81,000 people infected since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have recovered from the disease.
MEDICAL PROGRESS
A team of Chinese scientists has isolated several antibodies that are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the new coronavirus to enter cells, which could eventually be useful in treating or preventing COVID-19. Yesterday, the British American Tobacco group announced that one of its biotechnology subsidiaries is trying to develop a vaccine against coronavirus using components of the tobacco leaf.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
One of the novelties of the renewal of the state of emergency in Portugal allows the Government to proceed with measures that limit redundancies in the private sector in the next 15 days.
Yesterday, António Costa addressed the state of emergency in a television program, where he underlined that “it is essential that we all make an effort so that companies do not close”. The Prime Minister also revealed that the Government had already received requests from 3,600 companies to access the simplified lay-off regime.
The Government has already released 365 million euros to support 817 companies, as announced today by the Ministry of Economy in a balance sheet on the credit lines approved to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Economy Minister admitted that there will be one million workers covered by the lay-off, so the Portuguese State may have to pay the wages to 35% of the workers in the coming months.
In Brussels, the European Commission yesterday proposed a scheme for temporary employment support to guarantee the preservation of jobs in the countries affected by COVID-19, which would work as an alternative to the lay-off.
In a report released yesterday, the United Nations predicts that the world economy will decrease by almost 1% this year because of the new coronavirus pandemic, instead of growing 2.5%, as predicted.
FINANCIAL MARKETS
The PT national stock market opened today high, recovering from losses of almost 2% in the first session of April. The PSI-20 added more than 0.5% this morning, following the advance of European peers. The Stoxx 600 index gained 0.4%, with the recovery of European stock markets taking place in the face of some encouraging news surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
