Covid cases in Portugal reach a new high

Portugal registered on Tuesday a record 17,172 new infections by coronaviruses, although the infection rate is almost half of the worst level reached at the beginning of the year, and hospitalizations are still at an even lower level.

Official data showed that the Ômicron variant already represented 61.5% of all new cases in the country, which has one of the highest vaccination rates against Covid in the world, with about 87% of its population of 10 million fully inoculated.

The 14-day infection rate has remained unchanged since Monday at 804 cases per 100,000 people, down from the record of 1,668 cases on Jan. 31.

In the past 24 hours, 19 more people have died from Covid-19, bringing the total to 18,909. On January 28, the day with the highest number of fatalities, 303 people died in Portugal.

Although primary care centers are overwhelmed by long lines of people with generally mild symptoms, hospitalizations have fallen far short of early 2021 levels.

Hospitals had 936 patients with Covid-19 compared to a peak of 6,869 on Feb. 1st. This included 152 people in intensive care, or about 16% of the country’s ICU capacity, which by early February was nearly exhausted.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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