More than 1000 tests for COVID-19 performed in Porto and no positive cases reported

Reports by the Health National Directorate (DGS) inform that in the past 13 days Porto did not report any positive cases for the novel coronavirus. The testing regime continues, though.

In addition, the testing strategy never stopped in Porto and in the first 15 days of June alone, over 1200 people were tested in Porto. This information was indicated to Porto.pt by ARS Norte, which demonstrates that the fact that there are no new positive Covid-19 cases in Porto is not the result of the shortage of test performing but that health authorities, hospitals, institutions the Municipality and mostly citizens were able to stop the outbreak of the pandemic, for the time being, by means of active control measures.

Porto was the first city in the country to report a positive Covid-19 case; and that might well have been the case that this contagion was imported from a shoe fair from the North of Italy; also, Porto was the first municipality in the country to take active pandemic control measures, even prior to the Declaring of the Emergency State.

After 12 days straight, Porto's total toll of infected people by Covid-19 makes it the fifth municipality in the country with the highest infection rate, with less than half of the first municipality in the country to register the highest infection rate: Lisbon.

Also, the northern region continues reporting lesser cases by the day; and it now reports roughly the same figures than the Region of Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, when in April the Northern Region reported four times more positive cases.

Since the beginning of the pandemic and till 15th June, the Northern region has performed 382.562 tests for COVID-19, which means that over 10% of the population has been tested.

The average rate of positive cases reported was 4.48%, that is, 17.141 people tested positive.

Some of these positive cases were tested in other regions in the country due to citizens' mobility (whose domicile is in the Northern region).

However, the biggest majority of these cases was reported till mid-May, and since the number of cases has been lower.

The case fatality rate in the region is 4.61% and the number of hospitalised people thus far has been of 11.01% of those who have tested positive.

It is not clear that testing leads to the reporting of positive cases; also, the Northern region has been reported as best tackling the pandemic, regarding other regions, while performing Covid-19 testing.

According to the Northern Regional Health Administration the cumulative total of tests performed between 1st June and 15th June was 1.277, and the corresponding Covid-19 reported cases was 13 cases.

It is worth mentioning that the region's Public Health Services have contributed to restraining the ongoing pandemic and to maintaining a reduced number of positive cases.

Porto keeps its pioneer drive-thru testing, the first to be set in the country, which was a joint collaboration between the Municipality of Porto, a private lab and ARS Norte. The testing regime to suspected cases continues also in both public hospitals in the city.

The number of reduced or almost non-existing cases, according to the DGS statistics, is the result of the civic behaviour that everyone should keep despite the gradual lockdown lifting in the city and in the region.

Porto decided also to dismantle the Field Hospital Porto., which was set at SuperBock Arena/Pavilhão Rosa Mota and the Youth Hostel, which was turned into a centre to accommodate elderly who had tested negative but whose nursing homes did not comply with the mandatory pandemic rules to house their beneficiaries. This week was the first time that the Youth Hostel did not accommodate any elderly. This means that the pioneer testing to all nursing homes is now concluded.