Covid-19: British strain confirmed in Tavira and Faro

The British variant of Covid-19 has been detected in 28 Portuguese counties. Now, its presence has been confirmed in samples collected in Faro and Tavira.

The hypothesis had already been raised by the health authorities to justify the exponential increase in cases in Tavira and is now confirmed. Faro is also listed as one of the Algarve counties where the presence of this variant was registered, after analysis by the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA)

The president of ARS Algarve explains to TVI that “since the Algarve has the largest English resident community and also the international airport, what we expected was that it [the British strain of the virus] would arrive here”. Paulo Morgado says that the situation was “inevitable”. However, this discovery “is a justification for the increase in cases, but it is not the only reason”. The person responsible for ARS in the southernmost part of the country makes it clear that this “is not the only mutation that is in circulation”.

According to INSA, this new variant is already responsible for 15% of infections at national level and is already present in all regions, reveals Paulo Morgado. There are no special measures to control the British strain and the only way to get around the numbers is to follow the recommendations already issued by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

The Municipality of Tavira announced yesterday the exceptional and temporary measures to prevent and control the pandemic, at a time when we are going through another state of emergency and a new confinement. In addition, the Algarve municipality is at extremely high risk and also has the new English strain, considered more contagious.

In Tavira, some outbreaks are known, such as in a gym and in a home, which add up to dozens of infected people. According to the epidemiological bulletin released by the county yesterday, 1117 more cases are now confirmed. 865 people are in isolation, while 694 are recovered. In terms of active cases, Tavira has 498 and a total of 15 deaths.

In the municipality of Faro, there was a total of 1688 confirmed cases yesterday. In terms of recovered, Faro now has 1105 people. There are 574 active cases and cumulative deaths recorded are 9.

The Algarve region had 328 new cases (3.1%) notified yesterday, totaling 11,710 infections and 111 deaths.

Original article available in Portuguese at http://postal.pt/