Covid-19. Lisbon City Council to invest 3.2 million euros in tests by the end of the year
The Lisbon City Council unanimously approved the contracting, by direct agreement, of testing services to Covid-19 by participating pharmacies in the municipality, until the end of the year, in an investment of over 3,225 million euros.
At issue is the National Testing Strategy for SARS-CoV-2, of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), in which the City of Lisbon decided, on March 31 of this year, without a previous mandate, chaired by the socialist Fernando Medina, contracting the acquisition of testing services by pharmacies belonging to the associated council of the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF) to the company Farminveste – Investimentos, Participações e Gestão, SA, but, given the high number of tests carried out, “the value of the contract is if one is exhausted”.
This information was transmitted, through the order signed on September 24 – before the municipal amendments of September 26 -, by the then vice-president of the Lisbon Chamber, João Paulo Saraiva (PS), and now transcribed in the proposal of the current vice-president President, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP).
“With the prospect that testing for a SARS-CoV-2 will continue in the coming months, it is urgent to ensure a new procedure that will continue the first contract and therefore allow testing for a SARS-CoV-2 by pharmacies members of the municipality of Lisbon associated with the ANF in pursuit of the objectives of Rule 019/2020 of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) – National Testing Strategy for SARS-CoV-2 to continue to be carried out by the company Farminveste – Investimentos, Participações e Gestão, SA”, is read in the proposal, approved today at the chamber meeting, which was the first public session of this 2021-2025 mandate.
In this context, a commitment is made to pay “the price shown in the awarded proposal, in accordance with the services provided and confirmed by the contract manager and up to the limit of the contractual price, which coincides with the base price, in the amount of 3,225 .000 euros”.
In November, the new municipal executive, President by Carlos Moedas (PSD), informed that the free and unlimited testing plan for covid-19 in Lisbon was extended until the end of the year, noting that the program is open to the entire population , whether or not resident in the capital.
In addition to this proposal, the municipal executive approved today, unanimously, a classification of the Municipal Center for Plastic Arts of Coruchéus, located in the parish of Alvalade, as a monument of municipal interest.
On the initiative of the Councilor for Culture, Diogo Moura (CDS-PP), they were unanimously encouraged to express their regret at the death of composer João Paes and artist Nini Remartinez.
The councilor of Livre, Rui Tavares, presented a vote of regret for the women victims of violence, which was unanimously approved, and marked with a minute of silence, as well as the reading of the names of the women in question.
The municipal executive also approved, unanimously, a vote of greeting for the centenary of the birth of the writer and Nobel laureate of Portuguese literature José Saramago, presented by the PCP and signed by the other councilors.
Other greetings went to basketball player Neemias Queta for being the first Portuguese to join the NBA, to the LEFFEST – Lisbon & Sintra Film festival, to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the International Day of Trans Memory.
The chamber also made viable motions on the Lisbon Protege program, for ambitious climate action and on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.