Duarte Cordeiro. “There must have been a lot of mistakes in the Lisbon region” – Observer

Duarte Cordeiro assumes that “it is not expected” that the structural problems that existed “before Covid to respond to Covid” will be solved and says he understands criticism from Medina. “The comments of the Mayor of Lisbon are absolutely legitimate”. For the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, who also takes on the role of coordinator of the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region for the management of Covid-19, “A lot must have failed in the Lisbon region“, Says in interview to the Público newspaper.

Cordeiro assumes that there is a “Persistent problem in a group of municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon” in managing the pandemic crisis. But he adds that even among epidemiologists there are more doubts than certainties. “There are several possible explanations for the fact that Lisbon and Vale do Tejo today have a persistence in relation to the rest of the country”, he explained.

In charge of “coordinating the various services of the State and the region to ensure more efficiency”, he admits that he will feel “always responsible” for whatever will go well or badly in the Lisbon region.

To the Public, Duarte Cordeiro also warns of the fact that the fight against the disease has to be done according to “reality,” which means that “it is not expected” that all the structural problems that already existed could be solved “before the covid for respond to covid ”.

However, he stresses that at this stage, the most important thing is not to look for responsibilities, “what really matters is finding ways and solutions”. At housing, for example, anticipates the Healthy Neighborhoods program, which will be “super efficient”. “We always said that even April 2024 we wanted to eliminate unhealthy housing. The Government has in-depth structural programs to address the problem. We entered a sum in this year’s State Budget that aimed to start launching the projects associated with this specific problem in the neighborhoods. These are highly complex things that take a long time to be implemented ”.

Also questioned about the road transportThe private companies in Lisbon, which cover the most critical areas, and are only working at 90%, ensure that the responsibility lies with the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon (for which Fernando Medina is responsible) and the Government – which has registered, in the budget supplement, the “amount needed for AML, but not only, to increase the offer”.

In your eyes, the role of the Minister of Health has been “very positive, very good”. Marta Temido, says Duarte Cordeiro, “is overdedicated“. “It has an extraordinary resistance to what we have lived”, adding that it is a “very long period of time from the point of view of response”.

And despite the flaws, Duarte Cordeiro reaffirms that the Government’s priorities were guaranteed, such as the “protection of the most fragile, health professionals”, or the stability of the National Health Service, which has not broken, or even “ low mortality rates ”. Looking at these variables, which have always been the “most important”, as the coordinator explains, and “looking at the territory of Lisbon”, “quite honestly, I cannot understand which of these variables is in question and what we do not have been successful in combating the pandemic ”, he concludes.

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