Porto dismantles Field Hospital Porto. as it does not pick up new Covid-19 cases for eleven days straight

Field Hospital "Porto.", set up at Super Bock Arena/Pavilhão Rosa Mota, will be dismantled over the coming days. 

This decision was jointly made by both public hospitals in Porto, the Northern Regional Medical Section and Porto City Hall, following the fact that Porto does not report any new Covid-19 cases for eleven days straight, which makes it now the fifth municipality in Portugal with the highest toll of cases.

The Hospital was set by Porto City Hall, in the pavilion granted by the concession holder, with the support of the Army and several private companies. The hospital received circa thirty patients, thus relieving the city's main public hospitals - São João and Santo António - in tackling the pandemic.

The Northern Regional Medical Association was in charge of the Hospital Management, where about 300 collaborators worked in a voluntary basis.

With the support of RTP News Channel, Porto City Hall received a solidarity campaign of about 400 thousand euros, from over one thousand donors, which enabled the Municipality to balance the accounts and to guarantee the project funding.

The Hospital was also key to ensuring that Porto City Hall could provide appropriate places to accommodate people who tested positive and negative for Covid-19, following the pioneer testing to the new coronavirus carried out by Porto City Hall in all nursing homes in the city.

Porto was pioneer in tackling Covid-19 in the country, as it was the first municipality in Portugal to take preventive measures, namely putting municipal workers in teleworking, closing theatres and front-office services, and purchasing ventilators in Shenzhen, which were the first acquired by public entities to be delivered to hospitals.

Porto was also the first city in the country to implement mask production in a textile factory and was in evidence by the awareness campaigns to mobilize public opinion.

Porto City Hall handed out free masks to 30 thousand municipal residents in social neighbourhoods and carried out training sessions in retirement homes and institutions.