COVID-19 | Weekly Update

November 27, 2020

Friday, November 27th | COVID-19 Daily Update


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CURRENT OUTLOOK 

Over the last 24 hours, Portugal recorded 67 fatalities and 5,444 new people infected with the new coronavirus, according to the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) epidemiological bulletin. 

The data released today show that the number of deaths increased from 4,209 to 4,276, while confirmed cases increased from 280,394 to 285,838. It should also be noted that the number of people recovered also increased by 5,502 to 199,446.

 

PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL 

Circulation between municipalities in the continental territory of Portugal is prohibited between 11 pm today and 5 am on Wednesday, with ten exceptions to the measures provided for in the state of emergency, decreed due to the pandemic. 

It is recalled that the ban will again apply between 11 pm on December 4th and 11:59 pm on December 8th.

The criteria for vaccination against COVID-19 have been announced. The first group to get the vaccine will be people between 50 and 75 years old with very serious illnesses. For now, out of this first vaccination group are the elderly over 75 years old. 

Although they are the group where mortality is highest, “neither the pharmaceutical companies nor the European Medicines Agency has provided sufficient evidence on the vaccine’s effectiveness in this age group”. 

In this regard, the spokesman for the National Council for Public Health, Jorge Torgal, stresses that the proposal was prepared before data were known to prove the vaccine’s effectiveness among older people and argues that people over 70 should be first to be vaccinated. 

However, the Government clarifies that the vaccination strategy has not yet been discussed with the Ministry of Health or politically validated.

Northern Continental Portugal has become the third region in Europe with more cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in the last 14 days. 

The accounts are presented by the European Center for Disease Control in the latest risk map for Europe published yesterday.

 

PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD 

Germany has surpassed the 1 million cases barrier since the pandemic began. In the last 24 hours, the country giant accounted for additional 22,806 cases of the disease and 426 deaths. 

Russia, too, had records of infections by the new coronavirus in several regions and Moscow, with 2,000 more cases than the previous day, but also a slight reduction in the number of deaths. 

In Brazil, 171,000 deaths (171,460) and 6.2 million (6,204,220) cases were surpassed. Of this total, 691 deaths and 37,614 infections were recorded in the last 24 hours. 

In a broadcast on social networks yesterday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called into question the effectiveness of the masks in combating the spread of the virus and explained that he will not get the vaccine when it becomes available in Brazil.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the execution of at least two people, banned sea fishing, and confined the city of Pyongyang as part of measures against COVID-19 and the economic effects of the pandemic.

India will produce more than 100 million doses of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19, Sputnik V, after an agreement between the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero, was announced today.

 

MEDICAL PROGRESS 

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will carry out an “additional study” to validate the results of the effectiveness of its vaccine against the new coronavirus, after having revealed that there were unforeseen changes in dosage in the first trial. 

Meanwhile, Cuba announced yesterday that it will begin clinical trials of two vaccine projects against COVID-19, which increase the number of possible drugs of this type developed on the island to fight the pandemic to four, and it has been advanced that the research carried out to combat the COVID-19 pandemic will also contribute to the fight against other diseases.

 

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The emergence of a second wave of the pandemic and the new containment measures have already started to be felt. 

Portuguese consumers became more pessimistic in November, after five months in which expectations stabilized, INE (PT Statistics Bureau) reveals. 

At the same time, DECO (consumers’ rights association) reported that it received more than 6,500 complaints regarding online purchases this year, with Portuguese people buying more and more products and services over the internet and many on social networks and marketplaces.

A study by ISCTE (University) revealed today that about 80% of the owners and managers of local accommodation recorded a drop in turnover of more than 75% during the second quarter of 2020, compared to the same period of the previous year. 

In France, the economy grew 18.7% in the third quarter, according to calculations by the French National Institute of Statistics, which revised upward the estimates for this period, after the sharp drop in GDP in the second quarter. 

In China, the profits of the main industrial companies increased 0.7%, year on year, in the first ten months of the year, the first time that this indicator is positive this year, the Chinese National Statistics Office reported today.

 

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Lisbon Stock Exchange continued to rise, in line with the main European counterparts.

The main European exchanges also opened today on a high, but without New York references due to Thanksgiving Day celebrated yesterday and concerned with the advance and economic impact of the pandemic. 

Without relevant macroeconomic and Wall Street stocks to compare with, European stock markets were on a positive trend, attentive to the advance of the pandemic, but excited by the beginning of the presidential transition in the USA and the news about the vaccines against COVID-19.