Lisbon causes wave of virus as Portugal reprimands for failures

LISBON, Portugal (AP) The surge in COVID-19 cases in Lisbon regions is progressing, with new infections pushing Portugal’s daily new cases to a four-month high as a report by health experts finds take issue with the government’s response to the pandemic.

Portugal reported nearly 1,500 new cases on Wednesday, two-thirds of which in the capital region where 2.8 million people live. Three people have died in Portugal from COVID-19 within 24 hours.

The national 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people has risen to 130, more than double what it was three weeks ago.

The pressure on hospitals remains manageable, with 437 patients infected with the virus admitted and 100 in intensive care. The Portuguese government has already banned travel to and from the Lisbon region on weekends, although last weekend’s police were spotty.

Experts blame the delta variant for the spread of the Lisbon virus, estimating that it accounts for more than 70% of cases. The government is widely expected to announce new restrictions for Lisbon after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

To speed up the pace of vaccinations, authorities reopened a vaccination center at the University of Lisbon sports stadium on Wednesday, which is operated by the Portuguese armed forces. From Monday, a walk-in vaccination center will open in the waterfront district of the capital, Alcntara.

Meanwhile, the head of the national immunization task force said he hopes to reach the target of 70% of the population vaccinated by the third week of August.

This is later than the original plan, which was to meet the target in early summer, but Rear Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo said Portugal was receiving fewer doses of the vaccine than the 130,000 vaccines per day. that he could administer.

Also on Wednesday, a health expert report on Portugal’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic warned the country was not learning from what had happened in the past 15 months. The report said there was a worrying lack of drawing any conclusions about what was wrong.

The report from the Portuguese Health Systems Observatory, which brings together current and former public health chiefs, said it was good that the main political parties in the country united and that the Portuguese mainly complied with the social distancing and mask-wearing rules.

But he said politicians pressured health experts to give them recommendations that were more politically practical and that the National Public Health Council was barely used and severely underfunded. In addition, he said, authorities have failed to activate two specialized units to improve the country’s response to the pandemic.

We don’t learn from this experience what we need to do better in the future, according to the report.

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