The Covid-19 outbreak in Porto Santo, which peaked at 91 cases, and had more than three hundred people under surveillance during mid August, is now under control, confirmed Pedro Ramos, the Regional Secretary for Health and Civil Protection.
While holding a press conference in Vila Baleira (Porto Santo), Pedro Ramos along side local health delegate Rogério Correia, said that the number of active cases now stood at nine, while the number of people under active surveillance is around thirty-six. Which means, that by the second half of this month the situation on the island should have returned to normal.
In August, the increase in covid-19 cases in Porto Santo meant that Madeira’s health authorities created another 50 bed isolation units at the multipurpose pavilion, as the dedicated hotel’s 46 rooms were all occupied. However, this has now been decommissioned.
There are about 5,000 people living in Porto Santo, but due to its popularity as a holiday destination this figure can swell to around 30,000 people during the summer months. At the beginning of August, things got out of hand, as there were frequent gatherings of young people in the centre of Vila Baleira, (approx 2,000), at a time who all congregated together between the midnight closing time and the 01:00 curfew.
Unfortunately, said Pedro Ramos, many of those on holiday forgot the rules and behaved inappropriately!
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
