COVID-19 | Weekly Update

Friday, August 27th | COVID-19 Daily Update

CURRENT OUTLOOK 

According to the epidemiological bulletin of the DGS, in the last 24 hours, over 2,370 cases of infection and 14 deaths associated with COVID-19 were registered in Portugal.

Data released today indicate that there are now 1,030,791 confirmed cases and 17,703 deaths. Regarding recovered from the disease, another 2,338 cases were registered, bringing the total number to 967,662.

THE PANDEMIC IN PORTUGAL

Portugal leads vaccination in the European Union but is “marking a step” in the number of infections, a situation that researcher Miguel Castanho warns could have an impact in the autumn when the virus will have “optimal conditions” for propagation. The Institute of Molecular Medicine specialist also defended that the generalized administration of a third dose only makes sense with a vaccine updated to new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Ministry of Education announced that schools would carry out COVID-19 tests for students between the 7th and 12th grades and all teachers and school staff at the beginning of the school year.

Concerning Madeira, the Regional Government decided to extend the calamity situation until September 30th but reduced the curfew by one hour. In turn, the Azores reached 70% of the population with complete vaccination, announced the regional secretary for Health and Sports, Clélio Meneses, who hopes to reach 85% by October. It should also be noted that Terceira island no longer shows evidence of community transmission and is now at a “shallow risk” level of infection by the new coronavirus, indicated the Regional Health Authority.

THE PANDEMIC IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

Pfizer and BioNTech have announced an agreement with Brazilian pharmaceutical company Eurofarma for production in Brazil of the vaccine and distribution in Latin America. At total operational capacity, annual production in the country is expected to exceed 100 million final doses per year.

The UK Ministry of Transport announced that the Azores and other territories and countries will move to the “green list” of travel from Monday, with no need for isolation after arrival.

In the European space, Spain is also worth mentioning, where the occupation of intensive care units decreased. Although the Ministry of Health reported that the number of new infections registered a sharp drop, 3,666 less than the day before, the same did not happen with the number of deaths. Meanwhile, the fourth wave in Germany is gaining more and more speed, especially in the younger layers, who have lower vaccination levels.

In Japan, the Ministry of Health indicated that it had not detected any problems in patients inoculated with the Moderna vaccine. The administration of a batch of doses was suspended. Health Minister Norihisa Tamura urged drugmaker and distributor Takeda to “take steps to prevent this from happening again and to find the cause soon.”

Also, on the Asian continent, India asked the states of Kerala and Maharashtra to consider implementing night curfew in areas with high numbers of COVID-19 cases. For two days in a row, the country registers more than 40 thousand new infections.

MEDICAL PROGRESS

A new British study has revealed the first data to indicate that some groups of people with specific diseases created few antibodies against COVID-19 after two vaccine doses. The research looked at the response to vaccines of immunocompromised patients, including several subgroups.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

The daily economic activity indicator stabilized in the third week of August, after increasing in the first two weeks of the month due to the reopening of the economy. According to Banco de Portugal, the economy grew again compared to last year and 2019, after the slowdown in July.

Despite this, companies with closed activity, such as bars and clubs, fear that they will not be able to support 100% recovery in September due to a “fake” in the law. Still, the Ministry of Labor guarantees that this will not happen. At the same time, merchants consider that the costs involved in IVAucher are high, which prevents establishments from joining the program.

About households, since December 2014, they did not have such a high amount of bank loans. In total, loans to individuals increased to 123 billion euros in July this year, indicated the Bank of Portugal. DECO has already warned that the problem will worsen with moratoriums on housing credit at the end of September.

On the international scene, the European Commission has already advanced with 48.5 billion euros to nine EU Member States of pre-financing the amounts for the post-crisis recovery of COVID-19, including Portugal, foreseeing more disbursements in September.

However, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization warned that the “two-speed” recovery from the new coronavirus crisis threatens to leave developing countries behind. The leaders of these institutions, meeting yesterday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pointed out that this divergence is due to unequal access to the vaccine and the difficulties in maintaining aid to the economy.

FINANCIAL MARKETS

The Portuguese stock exchange started the last session of the week trading in negative territory, following the main European counterparts. This morning, the PSI-20 fell 0.13% to 5,323.72 points. Among the primary European markets, the German DAX retreated 0.13%, the British FTSE 100 slipped 0.01%, the French CAC 40 lost 0.15%. The Spanish IBEX 35 gained 0.15%. Investors are looking forward to the outcome of the US Federal Reserve meeting.

Thus, yesterday the US stock exchanges did not resist, and Wall Street closed in the red, with the Dow Jones at the end of the day falling 0.54%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.58%. The Nasdaq Composite also retreated, with a drop of 0.64%, losing the threshold of 15 thousand points.