The “working group” created by the Póvoa de Varzim City Council to monitor the ‘collateral damage’ of the passage through the municipality, a week ago, by the Chilean writer Luís Sepúlveda, infected with the new coronavirus, asks “all employees / collaborators who contacted directly, in the space of 1 to 2 meters, with the author “to stay at home and avoid social contacts”. They must also “check the temperature twice a day”.
Luís Sepúlveda, 70, was hospitalized this Saturday after having confirmed he was infected with the new coronavirus, Covid-19. The 66-year-old woman is also hospitalized. Both were transferred to the Central Hospital of Asturias, in Oviedo, Spain.
The municipality was responsible for organizing the literary event Correntes d ‘Escrita, where the author was and where hundreds of people passed by.
For the rest, Manuela Ribeiro, organizer of the event, told the newspaper Expresso that the writer was already “quite constipated” when he left Póvoa.
In a statement published in site, the Chamber adds that those quarantined persons must “record the temperature twice a day” and contact the SNS24 line. The number of people considered “close contact” with Sepúlveda or how many are already confined at home has not yet been released by health authorities.
Unclear situations
Other situations have not yet been clarified: if they have gone and what are the measures of containment and prevention taken in all places where Luís Sepúlveda was during his stay in that locality (between 18 to 23 February). For example at the Axis Vermar hotel where he was staying.
The hotel does not provide clarification on the matter. Contacted by the DN and despite our insistence on obtaining information about what was being done, the employee Pedro Sampaio refused to give the phone to a person in charge of the hotel. “I am not authorized to do that. There is no one available to speak,” he replied. Asked if, as an employee, any measures had been communicated to him, he did not answer either.
This hotel housed several of the participants in the literary event Correntes d’Escritas, which, like Luís Sepúlveda, not only slept there, but ate all meals.
In addition to the hotel, the writer was at the cine-theater Garret where the sessions of the literary event took place. On the 20th, he participated in a round table with the writers José Luís Peixoto, Paula Lobato Faria, Marta Orriols and José Gardeazabal. On his facebook page, José Luís Peixoto has already said that he is in good health, but that he will contact the SNS24 line.
Another possible source of contagion may have been the bus that daily made dozens of transport journeys by authors participating in the Correntes d’Escrita between the hotel and the cine-theater. Among them, of course, Luís Sepúlveda.
The Directorate-General for Health (DGS) calls for the “serenity of all citizens who have been in close contact” in Póvoa de Varzim with the Chilean writer, infected with coronavirus, and asks them to call the SNS 24 line. that “the Health Authority of the North region started the Epidemiological Investigation, that is, identifying the close contacts of the patient and the woman”.
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