The measures to combat covid-19 announced by the Government of Madeira show “excess of zeal”, a “lack of control and disaster in communication”, and the system does not have a response capacity or inspection capacity, said the JPP leader in the region.
“These measures are excessively zealous”, declared the parliamentary leader of the JPP in the Legislative Assembly of Madeira to the Lusa agency.
Élvio Sousa stated that the party “understands the need to test the population”, due to the increase in infected people, supports the importance of using a mask and has called for “maximum vaccination”.
But, the Madeiran deputy criticized the “way in which the communication was made, when two or three days ago the president of the [Regional] Government claimed that the situation was under control”.
“It went from a controlled situation to an uncontrolled communication that increased the level of anxiety and alertness on the part of populations”, he stressed.
Élvio Sousa added that “the system itself, with regard to testing, is incapable, not to mention the trade situation” and argued that “a balance in this situation is needed”.
In his view, the focus should be on the number of patients in hospital intensive care, recalling that, “at the same date last year”, there were “higher numbers than today” in the region.
Élvio Sousa considered that, “from the point of view of communication”, the announcement of measures to mitigate the problem “was a disaster”.
And he defended that the Regional Government should adopt a position similar to the Executive of the Republic, listening to the parties about the situation.
“If we had been heard, similarly to what the Government of the Republic does, we would have given advice in this matter,” he said.
He also maintained that, “inadvertently, much of the population is confused and some of them are angry because of the untimely manner in which the measures by the president of the Regional Government were communicated”.
Another aspect that he highlighted in the application of the determinations is “the problem of inspection” of them.
“Because, when we create a monster from the point of view of the need to control the levels of virus transmission”, it is necessary “to see if the region has the capacity for this and it has already been seen today, at the level of pharmacies”, which are verified gaps.
“I suppose there was an excess of zeal here in this matter,” he reinforced.
Despite the high rate of vaccination, Madeira has registered, in recent weeks, a daily average of over 50 new cases of infection and also an increase in the number of deaths associated with the disease, which currently stands at 84 deaths.
Madeira’s health authorities on Thursday signaled another 52 cases of covid-19 and one death. There are also 43 hospitalized people, seven of which in intensive care.
In view of this situation, the Government of Madeira decided, within the scope of the new containment measures for covid-19, to change the situation from a calamity to a contingency situation.
The president of the Government of Madeira announced on Thursday a set of measures to combat covid-19 following the increase in positive cases and the number of hospitalized patients in the region.
Most of the measures, such as the mandatory use of a mask in open and closed spaces and the presentation of antigen tests in some places, will take effect from 00:00 on Saturday.
The Madeiran executive only decided to grant an adaptation period to determine the mandatory cumulative vaccination certificate and negative test for spaces such as sports, restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, bars and clubs, cultural events, cinemas, night activities, games, casinos and other similar social activities.
This measure will take effect at 00:00 hours on November 27th.