COVID-19 | Weekly Update

Friday, July 30th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK

According to the daily epidemiological bulletin of the DGS, in 24 hours there were 14 more deaths and 2,595 new cases of infection by COVID-19 in Portugal. Fatalities have risen to 17,344, while the number of those infected has risen to 966,041 since the start of the pandemic. As for the number of recovered, it grew to 897,886, 3,331 more compared to the values reported yesterday.

THE PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL

Yesterday, the Government extended the situation of the calamity in mainland Portugal until the 31st of August, as part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the prime minister presented yesterday the three phases of the “liberation” of the restrictive measures, starting on Sunday and that depend on the criterion of the advance of vaccination. The measures presented are national, with no distinction between municipalities. For the construction of this new plan, António Costa underlined that the reduction of the transferability index, at the national level, to a value of less than one, had contributed. At the same time, the prime minister guarantees that everything is prepared, in terms of logistics and vaccine doses, to start vaccinating young people from 12 years of age, and the DGS today gave a positive opinion to the vaccination of children aged 12 to 15 years.

On the other hand, the president of the Government of Madeira said yesterday that the region will not follow the less restrictive measures adopted on the Continent, as the objective is to keep the archipelago safe for residents and visitors.

However, Portugal this week reaffirmed its commitment to continue supporting Timor-Leste, adapting ongoing cooperation programs, especially in the education sector, and also in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said today the Portuguese ambassador José Pedro Machado Vieira.

THE PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

The multiplication of new contagions with the Delta variant of the new coronavirus and the growing influence of the anti-vaccination movement is driving Europe and the US to take drastic measures to get more people to be vaccinated. President Joe Biden announced yesterday that he will make the vaccine mandatory for civil servants, for example, while in Europe some countries and numerous companies have already adopted or are considering adopting similar measures.

In the past 24 hours, Germany has recorded a further 2,454 cases of COVID-19 and 30 deaths associated with the disease. In accumulated terms, the country now has 3,766,765 cases and 91,637 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

However, the Brazilian government will cancel the contract for the purchase of 20 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19 Covaxin, announced yesterday by the minister of Health of the country. The contract for the acquisition of vaccines developed by the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech involved an intermediary company called Precise Medicines and was suspended due to suspected irregularities.

The Prime Minister of Israel announced yesterday that the country will give the third dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to people over 60 years of age, thus becoming one of the first countries to do so, and Spain has already indicated that it will do the same.

As of today, Thailand punishes the dissemination of false news or news that provoke fear in relation to the pandemic with sentences of up to two years in prison, at a time of strong criticism of the government’s management of the health crisis.

MEDICAL PROGRESS

An internal report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described the Delta variant of COVID-19 as being as contagious as chickenpox. The variant originally discovered in India is also more likely to break the protection offered by vaccines, the report indicates, which underpinned the reversal of guidelines announced Tuesday for mask use in fully vaccinated Americans.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The economy recorded a strong recovery between April and June, with GDP soaring 15.5% in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year. According to the National Institute of Statistics, compared to the first three months of the year – marked by confinement -, GDP grew by 4.9%. The year-on-year rate of change in the Consumer Price Index was 1.5% in July, one percentage point more than in June.

Companies that resort to support for the progressive recovery will be prevented from making redundancies for 90 days, instead of the current 60 days. The change is foreseen in the statement from the Council of Ministers yesterday, which explains that a new diploma on the subject has been approved. At issue is a decree-law that “prolongs support for the progressive recovery, as long as there are restrictions associated with the pandemic”.

Meanwhile, Portuguese taxpayers have already accumulated 21.2 million euros under the IVAucher program. In total, more than six million invoices from the accommodation, culture and catering sectors were registered, revealed the Ministry of Finance.

According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate stood at 7.7% in the Eurozone and 7.1% in the European Union in June, which represented a decrease of 0.3 percentage points (pp) and 0 .2 pp, in the Eurozone and the European Union, respectively, in relation to May 2021 and June 2020.

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Portuguese stock market is trading in negative territory today, with the PSI-20 devaluing this morning by 0.71%, to 5.083.37 points. The main European counterparts also followed an overall decline. The German DAX lost 1.13% and the French CAC 40 fell 0.40%. The British FTSE 100 devalued 0.91%, the Spanish IBEX 35 retreated 0.78%, and the Italian FTSE lost 0.52%. The Euro Stoxx opened the session to retreat 0.76%, to 4,085.63 points.