COVID-19 | Daily Update

Saturday, July 11th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK 

The Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) updated today the figures for COVID-19 in Portugal – since June 30th, adding 200 cases to those previously registered and indicating that there are 342 more cases compared to yesterday. 

Of these, 259 were registered in the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley. The total number of positive diagnoses now rises to 45,879 while the number of deaths has increased to 1,654, eight more deaths than yesterday.

Portugal has now fewer people hospitalized, but the number of patients admitted to intensive care units is increasing.

 

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL 

The Minister of Health, Marta Temido, advanced yesterday, in a joint press conference with the DGS, that Portugal has 161 active outbreaks of COVID-19. 

To date, the country has 27 outbreaks of the new coronavirus in the North region, ten in the Center region, 107 in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, five in the Alentejo region, and 12 in the Algarve region. 

The minister also revealed that the pandemic has already caused the death of 628 nursing home users in Portugal, 38% of all deaths due to infection with the new coronavirus. 

At the same time, the director-general of Health, Graça Freitas, underlined that Portugal, “despite its weaknesses”, is “one of the best countries in the world” to share information about the evolution of the pandemic because it does it “with transparency”. 

On the other hand, the group of experts that works with DGS in forecasting the evolution of COVID-19 in Portugal warned the organization that the number of infected people should start to rise significantly three weeks after the beginning of the next school year, which is scheduled to start next September 14th.

By the way, Marta Temido’s office has already announced some measures that should prevent the collapse of the NHS when seasonal flu returns and circulates simultaneously with COVID-19. 

Thus, the Ministry of Health will anticipate vaccination against seasonal influenza to the beginning of October and reinforce intensive care and laboratories.  

Marta Temido also added that, since March, Portugal has already carried out around 1.3 million tests on COVID-19, stressing that this is an “intensive and extended” strategy that the Government is committed to “not abdicate”. 

Meanwhile, the municipalities of Villanueva del Fresno and Valencia del Mombuey, both located in the province of Badajoz, in Spain, called for the closure of the borders with Portugal. The origin of the request is the outbreak of COVID-19 in Reguengos de Monsaraz, 35 kilometres from Villanueva.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

The immediate attack on outbreaks of COVID-19 in countries that have come out of confinement is essential to prevent new waves of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, admitting that, under the current conditions, the new coronavirus will not disappear. 

In the last 24 hours, the USA recorded 65,305 cases of COVID-19, a new daily high in the country that is by far the most infected in the world.

Since Wednesday the USA has been registering daily records of infections.  

Brazil, on the other hand, totals 1,800,827 million infected and 70,398 deaths, with the lethality rate of the disease in the country standing at 3.9%. 

Also in the American continent, Venezuela prolonged yesterday, until August 13, the state of exception in force since March, which allows the Government to decree “drastic measures” to combat the pandemic in the country with 8,803 confirmed cases. 

Mexico recorded 665 deaths and 6,891 cases, bringing the total number of deaths to 34,191 and the number of infected to 289,174 since the beginning of the pandemic. 

On the other hand, China registered only two new cases of COVID-19, all imported from abroad, and India registered 27,114 infections, a new daily maximum of cases, according to official data, leading almost a dozen states to impose new confinement.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS

Argentina was selected to test a vaccine against COVID-19 that is being developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, President Alberto Fernández announced yesterday.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States believe that changes in the voice, even if slight, can indicate whether or not a person has been infected with the virus. This research is still in its initial phase.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

In a 120-page document, entitled “Strategic Vision for Portugal 2020-2030 economic and social recovery plan”, António Costa e Silva warns: it is not worth having “illusions”. “The health crisis caused by the disease COVID-19 brings with it a deep economic recession that has global characteristics and that will deeply hurt our economy”, warns the author.

A total of 11 of the 22 largest outbound tourism markets have some type of limitation for their residents to return from Portugal. More than 7.3 billion euros in tourist revenues are set to be lost, meaning, that almost 40% of the total tourism market is in check. 

Beach concessionaires had a positive first month of bathing season “in terms of safety”, but difficult in terms of business, because there are fewer users and they cannot “cope with losses”, explains the president of the Portuguese Federation of Beach Concessionaires. 

Recently, the IEFP (Employment Institute) announced the unemployment rates registered in all municipalities in mainland Portugal, which shows an almost general worsening, and it is in the Algarve that the pandemic effect is being felt the most. 

Thus, the number of unemployed in Portugal increased again in May, with those enrolled in the IEFP already surpassing the 400,000.

ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal (Portuguese airports) will proceed with “a voluntary departure plan”, in the scope of the resizing of its teams, due to the impact of COVID-19, according to a message from the company’s president.  

The airline Emirates plans to eliminate up to 9,000 jobs due to the decrease in demand generated by the pandemic, said the company’s president today. 

The clothing industry recorded a 43% drop in exports in May. In total, this sector exported only about 152 million euros (ME) in May, compared to 271.1 ME registered in the same period last year. 

The European Commission announced that the approval of the European recovery plan will allow several supports to reach Portuguese companies later this year, showing harmony with the concerns of CIP (Industry Confederation), listed in a letter sent in April to Ursula von der Leyen.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS

Stock exchanges, in general, have risen over the past week. The benchmark for Europe ended the five days with a gain of 0.38%, with three UK companies leading the business valuations. 

The Portuguese PSI-20 also managed to accumulate gains during this week of 1.35%, repeating the feat of the previous week. 

Thus, the rise of the stock exchanges is taking investors away from the safe haven that is the dollar.