The minister, in a hearing in the Legislative Assembly, stressed that the authorities have not yet lost control in terms of transmission chains, but admitted that the situation could change.
Madeira has already signaled 43 local transmission chains of covid-19, but the authorities are having “more and more difficulty” in establishing the epidemiological link at the level of the newly infected, indicated the regional secretary of Health today.
“The spread of the virus, fortunately, is still in a position to be controlled, but the number of cases is increasing, it was expected,” said Pedro Ramos in the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Social Affairs, in the context of a hearing on the reorganization of the health sector in the face of the impact of covid-19, required by the PSD, the majority party.
The official stressed that the situation may change in view of the increase in testing capacity, which has increased from 50 tests per day at the beginning of the pandemic to 2,000 today.
“I recognize that we are finding it increasingly difficult to establish the epidemiological link, but so far all active transmission chains – and we have already had 43 transmission chains since the day we started following the first case – are being accompanied,” he clarified.
Pedro Ramos explained, on the other hand, that the reorganization of the health sector implied an investment of 30 million euros in human resources in 2020, with another 11 million expected for 2021.
The regional secretary of the PSD / CDS-PP coalition Government also indicated that the Madeira Health Service (Sesaram) has a total of 108 ventilators and that it affected 134 beds for users infected with the new coronavirus, but currently only four are hospitalized, one of which in intensive care.
Pedro Ramos stressed that in the first phase of containment of the pandemic, between March and June, the archipelago registered only 92 positive cases, but following the deflation the number rose to 691, of which 166 are active, with two deaths also being reported.
Between July and November, about 250 thousand visitors entered the region, the same number of inhabitants in the archipelago, a large part coming from areas or countries with active community transmission: 40 thousand from the United Kingdom, 27 thousand from Germany and 26 thousand from Continental Portugal.