Portugal has an average of 12 deaths a day from Covid-19 and almost 400 cases.

Portugal is registering an average of 12 Covid-19 deaths and around 400 new cases daily, a number that has almost tripled since the end of May, epidemiologist Manuel Carmo Gomes told Luce on Wednesday.

At the end of May, Portugal had an average of 130 notifications of positive Covid-19 cases per day, and over the last seven days the daily average has been around 390, explained a professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, noting that at the beginning of May the number of notifications was “very low” – around ten cases.

Regarding the number of deaths, Manuel Carmo Gomez said it is “around 12 per day,” which also represents “a significant increase compared to a month ago,” when there were around three deaths per day.

“If you go back about two months, we had a death every two days,” said the epidemiologist and member of the Technical Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination.

There has also been a “significant increase” in the number of deaths of patients admitted to public hospitals who tested positive, which does not mean they were hospitalized with Covid-19, Carmo Gomes said.

He also noted a nearly 30% increase in hospitalized patients testing positive over the past three months.

“Right now, of the people who test positive for Covid and are hospitalized, just over half are over 60” and about 24% are over 80, he said, noting that it is ultimately in this age group that most deaths are due to various diseases.

Carmo Gomez pointed to the evolution of the SARS-Cov-2 virus with the emergence of new strains capable of evading antibodies as the reason for this increase in cases.

“We have virtually no protection against these new strains of the virus,” namely KP.1, KP.2 and KP.3, which have “a number of descendants” and are currently dominant in Europe and America.

According to the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), the KP.3 sublineage became predominant in Portugal during May, but is widespread in Europe and America.

“We all have antibodies circulating in our bodies because we have already been vaccinated, infected, etc., but these strains have the ability to evade those antibodies,” he stressed.

On the other hand, the epidemiologist noted that about eight months have passed since the last vaccination campaign, which took place in the fall of 2023, and people’s protection against the virus has decreased.

He also recalled that vaccination coverage last fall was “not brilliant.”

“People over 60 had vaccination coverage of about 66%, which means that the remaining 34% were not even vaccinated in the fall; they have not been in contact with the vaccine for more than a year and a half,” he noted.

Although a large proportion of the adult population has no protection against infection, and if they come into contact with the virus by inhaling viral particles suspended in the air, they become infected, they are protected from the “hit of the disease”.

According to the specialist, the vast majority “do not have a very serious illness, they recover and do not end up in hospital.”

While on vacation, Manuel Carmo Gomes recalled that the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to circulate and recalled some recommendations to prevent infection.

“Covid doesn’t have a seasonal pattern, at least not yet, like flu, which has virtually disappeared, but it’s still among us and generating this wave” of infections.

The epidemiologist advised people at high risk to avoid being in unventilated rooms with people outside their usual social circle.

He reminded about the importance of hand hygiene, namely not putting hands to your mouth or eyes without washing them, and about wearing a mask for people who know they are “at high risk.”