Hospitals in the Algarve have a total of 60 patients admitted to Covid-19 wards, 13 of which are in intensive care, which represents about 50 percent of the capacity of phase 2 of the contingency plan.

"Right now, we are at 50 percent of our total intensive care capacity designated for Covid patients, which does not affect other services, with hospitals operating normally,” said one of the members of the board of directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA), Paulo Neves.

According to the official, the 50 percent refers to the capacity of beds foreseen for phase 2 of the contingency plan, with the Algarve hospitals "still having room to increase this capacity, if necessary."

“We have a contingency plan that can be adjusted and increased according to needs, but we have the perspective that there is no substantial increase in the number of cases of the disease”, he said.

According to Paulo Neves, the perspective “has to do with the number of cases registered on average in the last four days, given that in that period there was no significant variation in the number of admissions in hospitals in the Algarve”.

“Our forecast is that the trend that has been seen since the beginning of the month of people needing hospitalisation will continue, although we are prepared to respond to a possible increase in severe cases of the disease”, he stressed.

In the official's opinion, "vaccination coverage is playing an important role in the number of serious cases and deaths" related to the disease in the Algarve, and he went on to highlight that only four patients in the Algarve in intensive care require ventilation.”

Paulo Neves added that the hospitals in Faro, Portimão and Lagos, managed by CHUA “have all clinical activities running normally” and stressed that “the holidays of health professionals has not been suspended”.

“As we are in phase 2 and we maintain capacity, we are not going to interrupt vacations or care activities, because we have to treat all patients, Covid and non-Covid”, he concluded.