Portugal is facing its most difficult moment since the beginning of the pandemic, and since the beginning of January the third wave of coronavirus has brought the health system to its limit in a few days. The beds reserved for patients with COVID-19 in hospitals across the country are theoretically finished: on Monday 18 January, there were over 4,200 hospitalized, while the places available would theoretically be 3,801. In intensive care there are only 8 places out of the 672 available (the country is the one with the lowest number of ICUs in the entire European Union, in relation to the inhabitants), while infections continue to increase. On January 16 there were almost 11 thousand infections per 10.3 million inhabitants, the highest figure since the beginning of the epidemic; January 18, on the other hand, was the day with the most deaths ever, 167, due to causes related to COVID-19.
Hospitals are responding as best they can: opening new wards for patients with COVID-19 and building new facilities to increase hospitalization and emergency room capacity, as is happening at theSanta Maria hospital of Lisbon. Doctors on the front line they tell of being already working above the limits and of being forced in some cases to accept only patients in more serious conditions, with difficulties especially in the intensive care units. The order of doctors spoke of “ethical suffering” of those who work in wards with people with COVID-19 and said that “health workers are no longer able to save all lives”.
Portugal had been one of the countries that had best contained the first coronavirus wave in Europe. We had spoken of the Portuguese exception, which before October had registered only twice more than a thousand daily infections and that for most days had got away with a few hundred cases. The success of the initial management was mostly due to timing with which the government had acted, putting the whole of Portugal in lockdown when only 245 cases of coronavirus were registered in very limited areas and 3 deaths from COVID-19 had not yet been confirmed. In a country that has many elderly people, this insight was invaluable in saving many lives.
The individual empowerment that worked in March is failing today. According to the admission of the Minister of Health herself, Marta Temido, despite the restrictive measures introduced are very similar to those of March, people’s mentality regarding the emergency has changed. On January 15 the country returned to a substantial lockdown, with very few movements allowed, the obligation to work from home and the closure of all non-essential activities.
In the first weekend with the new restrictions, however, many people showed a more brazen behavior with respect to the prohibitions and the lockdown has therefore been made more severe from Monday 18 January. The opening hours of essential shops and supermarkets were further limited, also banning take-away and prohibiting circulation between municipalities on weekends. The schools, on the other hand, remained open. Minister Temido she said she was worried of the fact that the Portuguese may have got used to deaths and infections.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, He admitted the failure to predict the third wave and the growth of cases between December and January and opened the possibility of extending the current lockdown even until March if necessary. In a few days there will be presidential elections in Portugal and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is running for a second term, it is receiving many attacks for its management of the pandemic.
The failure to predict the third wave is also reflected in the measures taken in Christmas time, in which the movements between municipalities were allowed and in which the restaurants had remained open several days: December 24 and 25 until 1 am. The restaurants have only been closed entirely with the new measures, e amid many protests. Many in Portugal now speak of trips for Christmas as one of the most important factors for the spread of the infection in these first weeks of 2021. At the end of December, vaccinations against coronavirus began in Portugal, as in many other countries of the ‘European Union.
Meanwhile, the economic impact of the pandemic is causing fear of the start of a new major crisis for Portugal, with several economic indicators worsening in recent months, including the unemployment rate. The government led by Prime Minister António Costa has begun to shake due to the divisions between left-wing parties over the budget and social spending.
– Read also: In Portugal, a new serious crisis is feared
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