Concentration in Santa Cruz
As already covered here in earlier posts, the Covid infection rates both in mainland Portugal and locally in Madeira are showing an alarming acceleration recently as a further 51 new cases of COVID-19 were reported yesterday, the highest number registered in Madeira for a long time.
In October, for example, the highest value of daily cases stood at 32, precisely on the 31st, the same registered in September, on the 9th. You have to go back to August 21 to find a similar value – on this date, 52 new cases of covid-19 were reported in the Region.
Covid restrictions being mooted again
Alarmingly, in the last four days alone, 141 new infections were detected in the archipelago.
Substantial increases were seen in the number of hospitalisations, which led Regional President Miguel Albuquerque to emphasize the importance of administering the third dose of the vaccine – still only available in Madeira to those who had their second vaccine more than six months ago.
JM reports that the Regional Government hopes that it will not be necessary to retreat into Covid restrictions again.
Of the 51 new cases of Covid infection recorded by the health authorities in the previous twenty-four hours, 24 were recorded in the municipality of Santa Cruz, with the numbers in Funchal rising to 18.
Looking further into the stats, 37 cases are female and 14 male, Of the 80-year-olds, all 14 were women, which could be associated with an outbreak at a care home in Gaula, which itself will be contributing to the Santa Cruz figures. A full breakdown is below.
Of the cases announced yesterday 5 were imported, 2 from Spain, and one each from the Netherlands, the UK, and Germany. The remaining 46 were through local transmission. 18 cases were reported as recovered.
Again, alarmingly, the number of hospitalisations jumped to 15 people currently being treated for Covid at the main Dr Nélio Mendonça hospital in Funchal.
Update November 3:
The trend reverses: 25 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Madeira have now been reported in the last 24 hours. These are 4 imported cases (1 from Germany, 1 from the UK, 1 from the Netherlands and 1 from the Northern Region) and 21 cases of local transmission. There are 9 cases recovered, and currently, the Region counts 227 active cases, of which 27 are imported and 200 are of local transmission.
14 of the local cases were in Funchal, with just 4 in Santa Cruz.
Update November 4:
Today there are 45 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection reported in Madeira. These are 3 imported cases (1 from Germany, 1 from Spain and 1 from the Southern Region) and 42 of local transmission. There are a further 18 recovered, and the Region currently accounts for 254 active cases, of which 28 are imported and 226 are of local transmission.
Update November 5:
Madeira registered this Friday over 35 positive cases of Covid-19 over the preceding 24 hour period. These are 4 imported cases (2 from Germany, 1 from the UK, and 1 from the Netherlands) and 31 cases of local transmission. There are 19 more recovered cases reported.
The graphic below is from the Diario and shows the total number of active cases of COVID-19 each day since the start of the year:
COVID-19 in Madeira: previous daily updates can be found in an earlier post
Travel latest: requirements for entering and leaving Madeira: is kept up-to-date on a previous post
Anywhere that people are in close contact such as; care homes, schools/colleges, etc are always at risk of sudden outbreaks like this. The residents should have been double-vaccinated by now so they should be able to resist the worst effects of covid. One good point is that numbers of imported cases are remaining very low.
So no need to worry unless infection rates keep rising.
That is a huge spike – there must be a reason behind it. Perhaps the brakes were taken off too quickly?
A large chunk of the 51 are in a care home in Gaula.
This looks to me like a one-off, possibly an outcome of the long weekend where a lot of people socialize, particularly the older end. It will be interesting to see the figures over the coming days. Personally I am amazed that the numbers do not show more youngsters infected, as Funchal was very busy right through the night on both Saturday and Sunday – they were piling into their cars to head home well after dawn.