One in three Portugal coronavirus deaths in old-age people’s homes

ONE in three of Portugal’s coronavirus deaths have been in old-age people’s homes, the country’s DGS Health Directorate General estimates.

The directorate general head Graça Frietas commented this was down to the fact that the elderly are a “very vulnerable” group and concentrated in a “particular place.”

Today Tuesday the Portuguese authorities reported another 32 deaths linked to Covid-19 over the last 24 hours, bringing the fatality total to 567.

There are now 17,448 confirmed cases of the virus in Portugal following an increase of 514 since Monday. Of these, seven per cent have required hospital treatment and 1.2 per cent have had to be transferred to intensive care units, according to official figures.

More than half the infections are in the north of the country. Frietas said the explanation was that many people from the area, particularly business people, travel to the Italian region of Lombardy, which is Italy’s Covid-19 epicentre.

Health Minister Antonio Sales reported that an average of 18,000 coronavirus tests per one million inhabitants have been carried out, adding up to a total of 190,000 since March 1.

He commented that the increase in testing to around 10,000 a day, “is not proportional to the increase in positive diagnoses, hence it is a good indicator.”

Speaking in a radio interview, Prime Minister Antonio Costa admitted that Portugal is still not seeing an easing of the pandemic.

Costa made it clear that lockdown measures would not be lifted until the risk of contagion is under control.

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Written by

Cathy Elelman

Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.

Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.

Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.

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