10h27 – Leiria. Second day of vaccination of health professionals
The RTP reporting team followed the vaccination of an INEM professional, who expressed the desire to “return to normal life as soon as possible”.
Maria Fernanda Cunha, responsible for vaccination at Hospital de Leiria, said, in turn, that the expectation is to administer what is missing from the 530 doses received there.
10h10 – Vaccination continues in Amarante. “There is a symbolism here”
A total of 130 vaccines will be administered at the Amarante Hospital Unit of the Tâmega and Sousa Hospital Center. Sixty health professionals were inoculated with the first dose on the first day.
The Secretary of State for Mobility, Eduardo Pinheiro, coordinator for the response to Covid-19, followed this process.
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“Tâmega e Sousa was one of the regions in which the situation was more complex, with very high incidence rates, and there was a great effort on the part of health professionals”, pointed out the government official, before going to Lousada and Guimarães.
10:04 am – Over 2900 deaths and England and Wales
In the week ending December 18, 2986 people died from Covid-19 in England and Wales, according to the British statistics office (ONS). It is an eight percent increase over the previous week.
9h52 – Elected congressman dies in the United States
Republican Luke Letow, elected by the State of Louisiana to the US Congress, died of complications from Covid-19. He was 41 years old.
9h17 – Vaccination in Israel
According to the daily Haaretz, Israel wants to become one of the first countries in the world to vaccinate almost the entire population against Covid-19.
If it manages to maintain its current pace, the Hebrew State will have vaccinated most of the population considered at risk by the end of January. Excluding minors under the age of 16, most of the population is expected to be vaccinated by mid-March next year.
Last Sunday, 99,000 Israelis received the first dose of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech. By Monday evening, 495,000 people were vaccinated.
The goal, writes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is to vaccinate 150 thousand people a day.
8:50 am – Australia implements New Year restrictions
Australian authorities decided to restrict movements and prevent gatherings in Sydney, in an attempt to prevent a wave of contagion during New Year’s Eve. This is after new outbreaks of Covid-19 have been identified.
Meetings at home are limited to five people, while abroad the limit is 30.
Homes will not have visitors in the next few days.
8:42 am – Turkey receives first batch of vaccines
In the last few hours, the first shipment of vaccines against Covid-19 produced by the Chinese Sinovac arrived in Turkey. Turkish health authorities approved the universal administration of this vaccine almost a week ago.
The first batch includes three million doses, in a process that will reach at least 50 million in Turkey.
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca adds that inoculations will begin within 14 days after testing.
Since March, Turkey has reported more than 2.1 million SARS-CoV-2 infections. More than 20 thousand people died.
8h14 – Russia reports new figures
The Russian health authorities have registered, in the last 24 hours, 26,513 new confirmed cases of infection by SARS-CoV-2, including 5105 in the capital Moscow.
The total number of infections in Russian territory since the beginning of the pandemic has been 3,131,550.
Since Tuesday, an additional 599 people have died in Russia, for a total of 56,426.
7h52 – UK approves Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine
British regulators have approved the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.
It is the second vaccine to enter the program started on December 8 in the United Kingdom. The country had already approved an emergency authorization for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
AstraZeneca manager Pascal Soriot has already stated that “today is an important day for millions of people in the UK who will have access to this new vaccine”, which “has been shown to be effective, well tolerated, simple to administer and is provided by AstraZeneca without any profit “.
7:22 am – Germany with over a thousand dead in 24 hours
Germany has reported 1129 deaths associated with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, thus surpassing the barrier of thousands of daily deaths for the first time.
The Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases also reported 24,740 infected with the new coronavirus in the same period, down from the daily maximum of 33,777 reached in mid-December.
The total number of contagions confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic increased to 1,687,185, of which 1,302,600 were reported as recovered. The cumulative number of deaths rose to 32,107.
7h03 – State of play
Portugal will receive about two million more doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech in addition to what was planned, Antena 1 learned from the Ministry of Health.
It is part of Portugal’s responsibility in the new order for 100 million doses made by the European Union. The announcement was made by the President of the European Commission on the official account on the social network Twitter.
We decided to take an additional 100 million doses of the #BioNTech /@Pfizer vaccine, which is already being used to vaccinate people across the EU.
We will therefore have 300 million doses of this vaccine, which was assessed as safe and effective.
More vaccines will follow!
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 29, 2020
In total, the 27 Member States will receive 300 million doses.
Vaccination balance
In total, since March, 16,701 health professionals have already been vaccinated.
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On Tuesday, at the end of the third day of the vaccination campaign, the Minister of Health made a positive assessment.
Marta Temido added that, until now, no case of serious reaction has been detected. Only mild reactions were reported, but they did not cause any notification.
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The campaign continues in hospitals and health centers in mainland Portugal. It is the fourth day of the process. This first phase should not be completed until tomorrow.
The vaccination plan against Covid-19 foresees that, by April, about 950 thousand people from the priority groups will be vaccinated.
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The director general of Health, Graça Freitas, said yesterday at the press conference that she hopes the country will be able to control Covid-19 in the medium term.
New Year’s Restrictions
The new year will have more restrictions than Christmas and the measures are for the whole country.
On December 31, the curfew starts at 23:00.
There will be no fireworks or open-air concerts, and parties are not allowed on the street or in nightlife establishments.
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On January 1, 2 and 3, the curfew is from 1 pm. Restaurants can remain open after that time, but only for home deliveries.
The gatherings are limited to six people and it is mandatory to wear a mask and ensure physical distance.
The picture in Portugal
74 more people died with Covid-19 in Portugal, according to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health, known on Tuesday afternoon.
The country has totaled 6751 deaths since March.
A further 3336 new cases of infection are to be registered.
2930 patients were hospitalized yesterday, 37 fewer than the day before. In intensive care there are 486 – minus 17.
Another 6112 people have recovered from the disease and there are 65,457 active cases.
The SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in England may also already be circulating in mainland Portugal.
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The hypothesis was admitted yesterday by João Paulo Gomes, a specialist at the Dr. Ricardo Jorge Institute, who also confirmed that, in Madeira, there are at least 18 cases.The international framework
The Covid-19 pandemic has already caused at least 1,775,272 deaths resulting from more than 81.5 million cases of infection, according to the balance sheet which is constantly being updated by the agency France Presse.
The coronavirus variant circulating in England was also detected in the United States. The first case was diagnosed in Colorado.
The strain has also been found in France, Jordan, South Korea and Chile.
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The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has warned that the new strain is more contagious, although it does not cause worsening infection.
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