{"id":3608,"date":"2022-06-16T19:21:46","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2022-06-16T19:21:48","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:21:48","slug":"covid-fatalities-in-portugal-are-on-the-rise-as-the-tourism-season-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/covid-fatalities-in-portugal-are-on-the-rise-as-the-tourism-season-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID fatalities in Portugal are on the rise as the tourism season begins."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>COVID- The 19 cases and deaths are climbing in Portugal\u2019s popular tourist hotspots like Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve region.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faro, Portugal \u2013 Marie Braud until recently considered herself an anomaly. Despite travelling extensively for her work, the recruiter had managed to avoid testing positive for COVID-19 throughout the coronavirus pandemic. But that all changed in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 37-year-old began to experience fever and fatigue shortly after attending the Santos Populares festival. She thought it was a cold at first, but after taking a PCR test on June 8, it was confirmed she had COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI thought coronavirus was a distant memory,\u201d she told Al Jazeera while quarantining at her home in Lisbon. \u201cI was meant to start a new job this week, it\u2019s come at the worst possible time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Braud is one of thousands of citizens in the country of 10 million people who has recently tested positive for COVID-19, leaving health officials across the nation and Europe concerned about Portugal\u2019s infection rate, as well as its high death count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After pandemic curbs were lifted earlier this year, a spate of COVID-19 cases and deaths are growing in popular tourist population centres like Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve region as two years of pandemic-related cancellations have given way to popular parties and festivals during the summer season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Portugal\u2019s latest outbreak has made the country a hotspot of COVID-19 in Europe and home to the second-highest coronavirus case count in the world, after Taiwan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nation registered an average of 1,989 new cases per million people over the past seven days. In comparison, Spain registered 232 and the UK 161, according to tracker Our World in Data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Portugal also registered an average of 41 deaths per one million inhabitants over a seven-day period, making the country home to the fifth-highest mortality rate in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many health officials have expressed a mixture of light concern and disappointment at Portugal\u2019s uptick in infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe hope was that during the summer, we would have no more waves, no more coronavirus increases, so the hopes are somewhat diminished,\u201d Hajo Zeeb, professor of epidemiology at the University of Bremen in Germany, who is closely monitoring Portugal\u2019s current COVID-19 situation, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The nation\u2019s coronavirus outbreak, which is \u201cabove levels of concern\u201d comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in March that several European countries had lifted coronavirus restrictions too \u201cbrutally\u201d, as they were witnessing an increase in infections \u201clikely\u201d caused by a more contagious coronavirus strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is no treatment in Portugal and other European countries towards the virus. The feeling is that people are basically accepting what is happening right now,\u201d Zeeb said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perfect storm<br>In February, the Portuguese government announced a series of rollbacks of coronavirus measures as the country experienced a \u201csignificant fall\u201d in COVID-19 cases and deaths after a peak in January, dropping to 62 fatalities per one million inhabitants in a 14-day period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/news25.org\/flying-to-the-us%ef%bf%bc-soon-you-wont-need-a-covid-test\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3439\">Covid tests for airtravelers in the US will be droppped soon.<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/news25.org\/covid-origins-who-open-to-any-and-all-scientific-evidence\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"3433\">COVID origins: WHO \u2018open to any and all scientific evidence\u2019.<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>National health authorities say that the increase in illness is likely due to the easing of preventive measures, the emergence of Omicron sub-variants, steady tourist footfall, as well as super-spreader events like the return of crowded live events that have created the perfect storm for virus transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Partly due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Portugal is currently experiencing a strong rebound in tourism, which has offered some respite for the nation given the economic hit the conflict is expected to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts say that tourists will see Portugal as a safer option than other countries, in addition to the heat, the beach and lower prices than other European countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of strong tourist footfall and high contagion rates, health authorities have said that a high number of infections will \u201cnaturally\u201d result in a higher number of deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>British people gather at Faro Airport as they interrupt their holidays in the Algarve to return home due to the British government&#8217;s new quarantine rules about the COVID-19 pandemic, in Faro, Portugal.<br>Experts say that tourists will see Portugal as a safer option than other countries in addition to the heat, the beach and lower prices than other European countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe problem here is the impact on mortality, which is quite high, for a reason that is not completely known. Since the beginning of 2022, mortality has never dropped to significant levels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One possible explanation is that there is a subcommunity of the population actually more sensitive to the disease compared with the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere is probably a group of people that is more exposed, or living in conditions that make them more fragile, or we are talking about a small fraction of the population that did not get vaccinated,\u201d said the researcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Vaccination rate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 90 percent of the Portuguese population is vaccinated against the disease, according to Our World in Data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, scientists have warned that the subvariant BA.5, which represents nearly 90 percent of new COVID-19 infections in the country, is more contagious and could evade natural immunity from past infections and vaccinations, resulting in breakthrough infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The BA.4 strain has also been detected in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts say vaccines are not helping in preventing particularly fresh infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe vaccines have decreased in efficiency for new strains,\u201d said Castanho, though he noted that the vaccines still have a high efficiency in protecting against the evolution of severe cases of the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Health authorities have criticised the Portuguese government for dragging its feet on urgently tackling the spread of more contagious strains and for the delay in introducing vaccines adapted to the Omicron subvariants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Portugal\u2019s health minister Marta Temido announced earlier this month that the autumn COVID-19 vaccination campaign would include a fourth booster shot that is adapted to Omicron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But she has dismissed the possibility of reintroducing stricter measures like the use of face masks in outdoor areas or limiting the number of people in restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Not over its peak\u2019<br>Although the rolling averages of COVID-19 cases and deaths have subsided slightly during the past week, representing just over a third of the January 31 peak, health officials warn that Portugal\u2019s sixth wave of infections is far from rescinding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henrique Oliveria, a mathematician from the Superior Technological Institute of Lisbon said that Portugal was \u201cstill not over its peak\u201d, warning that the propagation of the virus is likely to reach its height during the Festas dos Santos Populares this month, and could result in the emergence of a new strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHospitalisations in wards and intensive care units and deaths will remain high until June 25,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Portugal currently has reported 1,991 hospitalisations and 108 people in intensive care units per million inhabitants in the past week, according to Our World in Data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite hospitalisations, cases and deaths being high, both the economy minister Antonio Costa da Silva and small tourism businesses hit the hardest during the pandemic have resisted health authorities\u2019 calls for tougher restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe pandemic has been a monumental struggle for all. Businesses, particularly small, young tourism organisations feel like they have endured the toughest possible time in the past two years,\u201d Carlos Correira, manager of Cafe Fresco in the Algarve, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Portugal\u2019s hospitality sector endures a chronic labour shortage, driven in large part by rising fuel costs and workers seeking more stable sources of income elsewhere, the concern for many local businesses is not the reintroduction of strict COVID-19 measures during the summer, but more of the tourism sector \u2013 which badly needs its workforce to get back to work \u2013 being drained of employees who are quarantining at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe were expecting a new employee to start on Saturday, but after testing positive for COVID-19, he can only start on Wednesday. We\u2019re inundated with clients,\u201d said the manager Correira, before adding that he felt that Portugal had \u201cpsychologically moved on from the virus\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Across Europe, health authorities have warned that a relaxed approach to the virus and an abrupt removal of COVID-19 measures by authorities during the summer months could spell a \u201cvery, very hard winter ahead\u201d, resulting in the prospect of fresh, tougher restrictions across the continent during the colder months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m concerned that if we keep the virus circulating at this level, that it\u2019s enough to eventually start a new big wave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID- The 19 cases and deaths are climbing in Portugal\u2019s popular tourist hotspots like Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve region. Faro, Portugal \u2013 Marie Braud until recently considered herself an anomaly. Despite travelling extensively for her work, the recruiter had managed to avoid testing positive for COVID-19 throughout the coronavirus pandemic. But that all changed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,49,48],"tags":[53,1606,949,12],"class_list":{"0":"post-3608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coronavirus","8":"category-health","9":"category-world","10":"tag-covid-19","11":"tag-portugal","12":"tag-tourism","13":"tag-world"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>COVID fatalities in Portugal are on the rise as the tourism season begins. - News 25<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/covid-fatalities-in-portugal-are-on-the-rise-as-the-tourism-season-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID fatalities in Portugal are on the rise as the tourism season begins. - News 25\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COVID- The 19 cases and deaths are climbing in Portugal\u2019s popular tourist hotspots like Lisbon, Porto, and the Algarve region. 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