Mark Release of Information Made Easy

Mark release of information

hello and welcome to another tldr eu video in spite of vaccines beginning to be rolled out across europe and the globe kovid hasn't disappeared off the face of the earth just yet cases around the world are still skyrocketing with an average of almost three-quarters of a million people getting infected each and every day something that's pushing healthcare systems close to collapse none more so than in portugal having dealt with the first wave quite well last spring something we actually covered in a video back then portuguese hospitals are now declaring emergencies at an alarming rate so in this video we'll take a look at just how the small iberian nation managed to go from one of the best countries in the world to battling its way to the top of the grimmest of league tables if you haven't already make sure to subscribe the channel and if you want to get even more involved get behind the scenes content exclusive access to live events the ability to vote on video topics and more then you can back us on patreon in addition to all of the perks you'll also know that you're helping us grow and make more independent a political news content the link to our patreon is down below thanks for your support during the height of the first wave portugal actually garnered somewhat international praise for its response to covet back towards the end of april 2020 portugal had just over 25 000 confirmed cases with just under 1 000 people sadly having died of the virus giving it a mortality rate in the region of four percent for comparison spain its next-door neighbor had over 213 000 confirmed cases and nearly 25 000 deaths a mortality rate nearly three times higher than that of portugal and portugal achieved this despite having the lowest number of critical care beds per capita in europe while germany headed the table at nearly 30 critical care beds per hundred thousand people and spaying quite far down the list at 9.7 portugal only had 4.2 at the time two things were attributed to portugal's success speed and luck portugal was one of the last countries in europe to record a case of the virus and within two weeks of doing that emergency measures were put into place such as mandatory confinement and stay at home orders the issue now is that in the second wave luck hadn't been on their side at the time of writing portugal is the country with the highest daily number of confirmed coronavirus cases per million people taking a seven day rolling average portugal had over 1200 cases per million way way above that of the second highest israel at 754 cases per million and nearly double that of the uk and the us who experienced 530 and 513 cases per million respectively the picture is similarly dire when it comes to deaths again taking a seven day rolling average portugal comes top with 22.5 deaths per day per million people just pipping the uk with 18 deaths per million people to the post in fact one hospital just outside lisbon breached its coveted occupancy rates at levels never seen before having planned capacity for 75 major covid patients the hospital breached the 200 mark on saturday in other words operating at 250 of its capacity according to the latest data published by the director general of health some 6117 people are in hospital with covid of which bordering 800 are in intensive care just looking at the numbers on a graph shows the stark picture an unprecedented rise in hospitalizations with no real sign of slowing anytime soon the question invariably arises as to why things have gotten so bad so quickly and it's no surprise that there isn't a simple answer after working a 12-hour shift on the coronavirus ward of a hospital just outside lisbon ricardo baptist de leche a member of parliament and head of public health at the catholic university of portugal posted on facebook that he had never seen so many people die in a 12 hour shift describing it as a war situation one that we are losing something repeated almost word for word by the head of portugal's private hospital association dr oscar gaspar we are experiencing a war-like situation we don't have enough beds in the national health service private or social sector to deal with the pandemic progression of 13 thousand to fourteen thousand new cases a day sadly the pressure on the health service has reached a point when it's beginning to push up non-coveted deaths too according to sns data non-covered deaths have reached the highest level since records began with them about to breach the 500 a day mark part of the blame behind these sky-high case numbers results from the number of variants circulating around the world as things stand now there are four main variants that have caught the eye of epidemiologists and governments worldwide the one first detected in the uk the one first detected in south africa and two detected in brazil wild scientists are rapidly trying to gather more information about the specifics of each variant and how they affect transmission the general consensus is that all of these variants do increase transmissibility portugal is particularly impacted by this because the three countries are inextricably linked with portugal when it comes to the uk the uk and portugal have the world's oldest alliance stretching back to 1386. in more material terms portugal is a huge tourist destination for brits something aided in recent months by portugal's presence on the travel corridor list the uk is also critically home to a number of portuguese emigrants the writer of this script included on the brazil front the links are obvious so much so that the uk ban travel from portugal due to its strong links with brazil and the risk of a brazilian variant being transmitted via portugal finally on the south africa front south africa like the uk is yet another major destination for portuguese immigrants all of these links mean that the ability for all three variants to enter the country and spread is extremely high the government has specifically laid some of the blame at the feet of the uk variant talking to the state broadcaster the health minister reported that some 20 of all new covid cases last week were the more transmissible british variant a number that could rise to 60 as early as this week and because of that things are bleak the very same health minister went on to say to the media that we have to use all the capacity that exists and we have to use it now and that the epidemiological situation is extremely worrying ambulances have been queuing up outside portuguese hospitals and waiting for covid tests to become available in at least one confirmed instance a man sadly passed away in an ambulance after waiting in it for more than three hours what invariably also contributed to this stark rise in hospitalizations and cases that we're seeing currently was the festive period portugal is an extremely catholic country at the last census in 2011 in the region of 82 percent of people declared their religion to be roman catholic and while this figure is declining the role of family gatherings at christmas is one imbued into portuguese culture and tradition the government in turn decided to relax restrictions over christmas curfews were lifted in many parts of the country and restaurants were allowed to stay open until 1am all of which certainly can't have helped case numbers in an attempt to drive down cases on saturday the ministry for internal affairs authorized the use of on-the-spot fines for failing to adhere to covert regulations ranging from 200 euros up to a maximum of twenty thousand the portuguese prime minister also announced on thursday the need to close schools and universities saying that despite extraordinary efforts by schools to function normally during the crisis the precautionary principle means that we have to interrupt all teaching activity for the next 15 days this came only a matter of days after he supported school's right to remain open saying at the time that they must not sacrifice the needs of the current generations of students again all in all though christmas new variants and lockdown strength seem to have contributed to this new peak and with portugal topping global tables for cases and deaths they're not even close to the gold standard they held last spring so what do you think was portugal right to relax restrictions over the festive period and where should the blame lie let us know your thoughts in the comments below be sure to subscribe to channel and hit the bell icon to be notified every time we release a new video special thanks to our patreon backers who make videos like this one possible and if you want to see your name at the end of videos then you too can back us on patreon the link to that's in the description you