The corona pandemic does not seem to be over right yet. Omikron variant BA. 5 is creating increased infection pressure in Portugal these days. The country is now in what is being referred to as the sixth wave of covid-19.
On Wednesday, the country’s health authorities confirmed 26,848 cases and 47 covid-related deaths, according to The Guardian.
This was the highest number of daily infections and deaths recorded since 17 February.
In total, almost 990,000 infections were registered in April and May in the country. This is 21 percent of the number infected since the pandemic started, according to The Portugal News.
– We are not very worried here in Norway. But we still have circulating viruses and we must expect new waves, says Frode Forland, director of infection control at FHI.
He comes straight from an evaluation with the European Infection Control Agency in Stockholm.
– The infection is slightly increasing in some countries. Our explanation is that there are some countries, such as Portugal, which have not had a large omicron wave. Now they get it through BA. 5 or BA. 4, says Forland.
In Norway we had a wave with omikron BA. 2 this winter. This means that we are better protected.
90 percent of the cases
Both the number of infected and the number of deaths will now increase in Portugal as a result of BA. 5 variant of the coronavirus.
In April, 1,455 were reported to die of or with covid-19 in Portugal. The number of deaths in April represents six percent of the total number of covid deaths reported in Portugal.
On Tuesday, The National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), which corresponds to FHI in Portugal, stated that the new BA. 5 now represents 90 percent of new covid-19 infections. This according to Euro News.
The new omikron variants are somewhat more contagious.
– BA. 5 is more contagious, we also see this in the fact that it takes over BA. 2 has been dominant, but there is no evidence that it causes more serious illness, says Forland.
Falls in neighboring countries
The infection pressure in Portugal is also extraordinary for the region. In France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, the number of infected people has fallen steadily over the past two months.
Hospital admissions and the number of patients in the intensive care units are expected to remain high in Portugal until the end of June.
Last week, Portugal registered 2,447 new cases of covid-19 per million inhabitants. In comparison, 447 infected per million were registered in neighboring Spain, writes Euro News.
Although the rate of infection is increasing in Portugal, it is still just over a third of the number of daily infections as it was at the end of January.
The wave of infections creates fear for the country’s tourism industry, but according to sources who speak to Reuters, no cancellations have been reported so far.
More than 90 percent of the population in Portugal is fully vaccinated against covid-19.