There are 44 outbreaks of Covid-19 in nursing homes in Portugal, reports the Government – Society
Minister clarified that those who visit homes can take a diagnostic self-test “provided it is performed at the time and in front of an employee”.
Homes for the elderly currently have 44 outbreaks of covid-19, a number that has remained stable in the last two months, revealed this Thursday the minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security.
“In terms of the number of outbreaks, the number has been stabilized over the last two months. At the moment, we have 44 outbreaks in homes”, explained Ana Mendes Godinho, at a press conference at the end of the Council of Ministers.
The minister said that efforts have been made “permanently for information and recommendations to be shared”.
Ana Mendes Godinho clarified that people who visit nursing homes can take a diagnostic self-test at covid-19 “provided it is performed at the time and in front of an institution employee”, allowing this measure to simplify procedures and guarantee protection.
The government official also said that the preventive testing program for employees of nursing homes is being carried out, an initiative that has been going on for about a year.
According to the minister, this program should prevent, since the beginning and until now, “more than 1,050 outbreaks in nursing homes in view of the detection of cases enabled preventive tests that have been carried out massively”.
Covid-19 has caused at least 5,328,762 deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest report by Agence France-Presse.
In Portugal, since March 2020, 18,717 people have died and 1,211,130 cases of infection have been recorded, according to data from the General Directorate of Health.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
A new variant, Omicron, classified as “worrying” by the World Health Organization (WHO), has been detected in southern Africa, but since the South African health authorities raised the alert on 24 November, infections have been reported in skin. minus 77 countries from all continents, including Portugal.