The President of the Regional Government admitted today that this week the cases in Madeira are always going up, hoping that, starting next week, they will start to decline.
The high numbers that have been recorded so far are still a consequence of Christmas and the end of the year, and Miguel Albuquerque estimates that they will decrease in the coming weeks.
Speaking to journalists, on the sidelines of the presentation of the damage from bad weather in the parishes of Boaventura and Ponta Delgada, the head of the Madeiran Executive also reported the number of tests done in schools, noting that, of the approximately 11,200 tests, only 40 were positive , which, in his opinion, proves that schools “are a safe place”.
Regarding health care, Miguel Albuquerque said that there are currently 73 people hospitalized with covid-19 at the Dr. Nélio Mendonça Hospital, two of whom are in intensive care. A somewhat reassuring note is the fact that there are currently 238 beds in the Region available for covid patients.
On the epidemiological situation of RAM, Albuquerque was concerned with the behavior of some Madeirans, giving as an example some situations that happened this weekend, especially in poncha bars. The president appealed to the common sense of the people, but also of those same establishments. Many people were out without any protection, nor did they fulfill the necessary distance. For this reason, he revealed that he may have to take further steps in relation to these bars,
Miguel Albuquerque has ruled out general confinement for now, not least because he explained “the economy must work”.