12 CASES IDENTIFIED IN THE REGION, ALL LOCALLY TRANSMITTED

Tobi Hughes·
Madeira News

I believe this is the first time we report that all cases are locally transmitted.

The Regional Health Directorate reveals that 12 new cases of covid-19 have been identified in the Region, all of which are locally transmitted, mostly associated with contacts of previously identified positive cases. In two situations, contacts are still under investigation.

In the daily bulletin, it is also mentioned that one of the cases concerns a child under the age of two years, with connection to the cases already identified in a nursery school in the municipality of Câmara de Lobos.

On the other hand, says the regional health authority, there are eight more recovered cases to report.

6 people are in hospital, one of those is in intensive care.

There are 166 active cases, of which 55 are imported cases identified in the context of surveillance activities implemented at Madeira Airport and 111 are cases of local transmission. Regarding the residence of active cases, 37 are non-residents and 129 are residents.

From Jornal Madeira

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Tobi Hughes

27 Responses

  1. Exactly what I said would happen 2 weeks ago.
    Does anyone know which nationals from which country brought the most infection into the island?
    If you guessed the UK you would be right.

    1. How can you positively say that ? Cases have come from the UK, Poland, Holland, most of Europe, many from the mainland. Go and ask a Restaurateur or a Hotelier or any of their out of work staff whether they would like a complete ban on UK visitors for twelve months.

  2. Totting up the numbers it does seem that the UK has provided the largest number of imported virus cases to Madeira. Followed I think by Poland. I do hope Madeira can contain the Virus . If it does not then one can forget much or most of the tourist industry .

    One possibility to mitigate risk is to do what Spain has done for high risk countries. Namely anyone arriving from designated countries has to come with a valid negative result certificate no more than 3 days ‘old’ . Some cases can still slip through but one is doing everything possible with such a ‘fit to fly’ certificate.

    I am amazed in the UK that many want an end to Lockdown. Especially some Northern MPs where the virus is currently worst. When scientists say that a 5 day generous relaxation over Christmas means a 25 day Lockdown in the New Year. So eat, drink, mix and suffer,?

    The virus is really not under control in the UK The R rate is still at or above 1. In our Surrey Borough for example of 140k people there are now 1100 active cases and rising v Madeira 155 and twice + the population. .

    So good luck Madeira. With a vaccine available by next Spring surely it must be worth having strict rules until that happy day ?

  3. Richard asked a valid question, which has not been answered. Which nationals arrived with the virus? Portuguese nationals will have been on many of the flights from the UK either returning back to Madeira or returning from holidays in the UK. It is interesting to see that out of the current imported cases 37 are non resident. My understanding is that the non-residents are likely to be forced to isolate in their hotels. Those who are resident however will return home to families and may inadvertently pass the virus on. It is really difficult to isolate fully in at home. I have not seen evidence that the spread is caused by tourists. The UK imported the virus in a similar way. At first everyone returning from China was put into a hotel but the virus was already in the community having come in from Italy and Austria when UK citizens returned from holiday. Does anyone know how many doses of the vaccine are headed to Madeira. Hopefully this will be a solution.

    1. UK has been the biggest tourism sector coming to the island throughout, followed by the Polish I believe, and these will certainly be in the top 3 of the largest importers as well as mainland Portugal.

  4. De verspreiders zijn dus de ingezetenen, die in thuis- isolatie komen als ze positief beoordeeld worden op de luchthaven.
    Deze komen thuis in contact met familieleden, die niet in isolatie hoeven te blijven en de nieuwe verspreiders worden.
    De positieve niet-ingezetenen worden echt geïsoleerd en komen met niemand in contact en zijn dus geen verspreiders meer.
    Isoleren betekend afzonderen en dat gebeurd bij de ingezetenen dus niet.
    De regering moet meer inzetten op de daadwerkelijke isolatie van de ingezetenen en deze dus niet in thuis-isolatie zetten, maar ook afzonderen.

  5. The infections detected at the airport are categorised by the persons departure destination (not by the nationality of the traveller). Mr Albuquerque recently warned of the dangers posed by 4,000 students who will return for the Christmas holiday, a proportion of which will no doubt travel from the U.K. If they turn up testing positive they will be added to the U.K. figures not to the Portuguese numbers. My worry for the island is that these people will still be sent home to self isolate with their families, and not ‘incarcerated’ in a Covid hotel as a non resident tourist would.

  6. Dat is precies wat ik bedoel, Mr Russell Rimmer.
    Isoleren met familie werkt juist omgekeerd en ieder gezinslid wordt juist weer een super verspreider, omdat die weer op bezoek gaan bij de rest van de familie elders op het eiland.
    En daarom kom ik als toerist dus dit jaar niet voor een longstay van 4 maanden, zoals gebruikelijk elk jaar.
    Het gouvernement moet betere aanpak nemen ten aanzien van de groep positieve ingezetenen, want een oplettende tourist komt dit jaar niet, met dit beleid.
    Het grote gevaar voor het eiland is de interne verspreiding.

  7. In my opinion it is now rather futile to be still going back over old ground and attempting to apportion blame on whether tourists or the local inhabitants were at fault. It is now a fact of life that Covid is present in Madeira and seems to be on an upward trend. It is vital now that we should all accept that that there is a problem and find solutions, whether by a short sharp lockdown or better still the vaccination route as soon as possible.
    It is tragic that Madeira is being brought to its knees and we all need to play a part in a swift recovery to safeguard jobs and businesses so heavily dependant on tourism.

  8. Excellent response Malcolm . Now that Italy say they believe Covid arrived there in Sept 19 , who knows who infected who and when .

  9. What we all can do is try to find nationality or persons who are responsible for the actual outbreak of Covid. Does this help in anyway?
    What we all cn do is to try to do our best to accept all the rules or even more. Keep distance, wear a good mask, change it regulary and minmize our number of contacts as much as possible. Buy takeaway food instead of staying in the restaurant, go shoppng only if necessary and buy food big only once a week, if you go to bars, stay outside…
    We have the great advantage, that almost all our madeiran life can be lived outside, which helps soo much.
    And spread the informations, try to convince those who give a shit on those rules.
    The better we all do, the less impact Covid will have.

  10. Michael is right.
    The problem has been that most of the inhabitants do follow the rules. Most of the tourists, to use Michael’s expression don’t give a shit. They don’t wear masks when walking around and don’t socially distance. They feel that they are here on holiday and obeying local rules is not necessary. Waking around in recent days I’ve asked people who don’t have a mask on to please put it on. In the majority of cases they were English tourists and all I got was abuse.
    It’s quite clear why the UK is one of the worst affected places in Europe. Most other nationalities respect the nonessential travel advisory and stay at home. Not the English.
    At least they can’t come here any more.
    Look at some of the local Portuguese blogs. Overwhelmingly they prefer to be unemployed and healthy rather than unemployed with COVID 19.

    1. … What I think we don’t need is any Self righteous, Self Appointed Vigilante bulls**t merchants like this Odd Richard Greaves character going around stirring up mask shaming of people, I wonder whether he is “consistent” and approaches people sat drinking coffee or talking in bars? Here’s hoping he gets all the abuse and more he so rightly deserves !! …

  12. Jane, what I don’t like is people not willing to wear a mask and socially distance thereby putting other people at risk. The chain of transmission has to be broken to prevent the virus spreading. The nationality of the person is not important, although my experience has been that there seem to be more irresponsible English people than other nationalities. This is a great pity as Britain is one of the greatest countries in the world and should be leading by example.
    The response of Russell, unfortunately, seems to be typical.

  14. … Typical of what?? Richard? Oh great one !! ,, I was saying You should stay off the mean streets of Funchal and Out of other peoples decisions and stop Dictating to and pressuring people ,, Its not your job and I consider it bullying …

    1. I agree with Russell. It comes across as straight forward ugly prejudice towards UK travellers. Please stop.

  15. Well this discussion is pretty acrimonious.

    This is what I don’t understand:
    If these infected people are tested at the airport and then put in isolation then how can they be spreading it, regardless of nationality?
    This then makes sense of the local transmission theory.

    1. People can catch the virus before departure to Madeira, then test negative for it at the airport on arrival (since the virus hasn’t replicated enough within them to show up on the test) and but then become infective to others later during their stay. Most of the time the tests detect it, fortunately, but certainly not always

      1. Yes, I agree that you have a point.
        My point was really that the majority of infected visitors are picked up at the airport, as you say, so their nationality is irrelevant.
        So there is nothing to be gained from this anti – UK ( or any other nationality) rhetoric.

  16. Agree Hadley. Unfortunately Quantas have said that a man who tested negative prior to departure went on to infect at least 4 others on a flight . Testing is helpful but certainly not foolproof .

  17. It is not about anti British but anti selfishness. Don’t travel and potentially spread the virus for pleasure.

    1. You obviously haven’t read the anti- UK comments.
      You will be pleased to know that we were due to fly to Madeira today for three weeks and are not travelling.
      I hope that makes you happy.
      How’s that for selfishness?

  18. Richard Greaves is right to go up to people and tell them to put a mask on. It is mandatory in public. Regardless of nationality, careless tourists who won’t follow local rules are not welcome. They may be willing to endanger their own lives or are too stupid to realize the danger, but they shouldn’t be allowed to endanger the lives of residents. I’m glad someone is telling them to put a mask on. That’s polite. A better approach if they’re rude would be to tell them to cover their pie hole or catch the next boat back to their home. We should have no tolerance for people who can’t follow BASIC RULES that our president has declared necessary.

  19. Thank you
    I live here in Madeira and don’t want to die from the virus.

    So it would be nice if people just followed the regulations on the island , wear masks and socially distance. Break the chain of transmission and we will beat this virus.

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