Although there is “great pressure” on the region’s health professionals, the Algarve’s public health services have so far been able to handle the growing number of Covid-19 cases.
Portugal’s Secretary of State for Decentralisation and the Algarve’s regional coordinator in the fight against Covid-19, Jorge Botelho, said on Wednesday that the region’s hospitals have been successful in “quickly and effectively” treating Covid-19 patients even as the number of cases increases.
In order to ensure that there is enough room at regional hospitals, health authorities have been moving elderly patients who “have long not met the requirements to remain hospitalised” to other social institutions such as nursing homes, Botelho said.
Even if the pandemic continues to worsen, the secretary of state said that the field hospital which has reopened in Portimão has given the Algarve a “reasonable capacity” for Covid-19 patients.
