Portugal hit record for intensive care room occupancy due to coronavirus | There are already 567 patients hospitalized for covid-19, the highest number since March 30

Portuguese authorities reported on Sunday the admission of 128 people with covid-19 to intensive care units, with whom they are already 567 patients hospitalized for coronavirus, the highest number since March 30. The daily bulletin includes 2,041 new confirmed cases and no deaths from the disease. Portugal entered the fourth wave of the pandemic with the Delta variant as predominant, so he had to take a step back in the de-escalation phase: nearly half of its ten million inhabitants must respect the night curfew since last Friday.

Portugal is the country with the highest incidence of coronavirus infections (189.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), especially because of the entry of the Delta strain, which is much more contagious than its predecessors. For the first time since mid-February, Portugal this week exceeded two thousand new cases per day, while a few weeks ago the figure was around 500.

António Costa’s socialist government has come under fire for being the only European Union (EU) country to receive British tourists for three weeks in mid-May., while the Delta variant was already clearly circulating in the UK. “It’s a repeat of what happened between December and January with the Alpha variant. We don’t focus on border control because Portugal is heavily dependent on tourism and in the end we foot the bill.“commented the president of the National Association of Public Health Physicians, Ricardo Mexia.

Since last Friday, the government has imposed a daily curfew between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. in 45 of the 278 Portuguese municipalities, among which are the cities of Lisbon, Porto, Braga or Faro. In addition, teleworking was again compulsory and cultural performances must end at 10:30 p.m.. Cafeterias and restaurants must close at the same time, although in the 19 very high-risk municipalities the closing is at 3.30 p.m. on weekends.

Some four million people are affected by this decline in gradual deconfinement, which Portugal began in mid-March after a critical health situation at the start of the year. “The situation is not comparable to the most difficult times experienced by the country for a year and a half, but it has worsened”, said the government spokesperson, Mariana Vieira da Silva, when the new health restrictions were announced last Thursday.

In addition to reversing the de-escalation, the Portuguese authorities are increasing the number of diagnostic tests and accelerating the vaccination campaign against the coronavirus. Portugal has accumulated 17,112 deaths and 889,088 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic in Europe in March 2020.