Covid-19 in Portugal

[Old McDonald]

I cannot speak directly on what the actual situation is throughout Portugal; only repeat a report given to me yesterday.

As some know I had a heart operation last year and extensive blood tests led to my doctor advising 2 weeks ago that I was “almost” back to normal. We took the decision to self quarantine. No notice so no opportunity to stock up but we knew we could easily survive a month or more.

A Swedish bloke that I have been using to do my heavy work suggested he should do a top up shopping for us in case things became worse. He went into town yesterday with a list we had emailed – whole beef fillet; whole pork loin and a couple of turkey breasts, plus some oddities we buy in that shop. The other shop was more mundane things like 5lt casks of red and white, whisky, brandy, half a dozen bottles of Port, potatoes, milk, bread flour, some fresh f&v, etc. No problem with buying anything. I spoke to him at distance whilst he unloaded into my vehicle. He said the shelves were stocked normally except there was not much fresh fruit and veg. He had also been in the other supermarkets in last Thursday and said everything there was as normal too. So it seems no panic buying in probably Portugal’s largest inland city.

There has been one disastrous effect for us though. We decided to resurrect advertising at the end of February after not actively doing so whilst I recovered. The day an internet ad appeared it was seen by an NZer in Portugal looking to move here. Within a week we had an offer at our Guide Price. He went home and I sent him masses of general management information he requested. After a week he went quiet and contracts were not forthcoming. Today he pulled out “Due to the current uncertainties in the world and the restrictions on travel.” Bitterly disappointing. I had cancelled ads (needing to pay for some) and have probably lost opportunities to sell.

76 in 6 weeks and a heart problem not quite fixed, I feel I should be retiring. We were all geared up to move, even picked the bungalow on the Ilha do Pico, Azores we wanted – fairly rural with a big enough garden on the edge of a tiny village and 300 yards or so from the harbour for some easy fishing.

We have a bit of fresh veg growing in our aquaponics system, some tasty goldfish almost big enough to eat (they supply the nutrients for the veg) a decent stock of better quality bottles in the cellar, a few hundred litres of oil and masses of bars of soap, which we make ourselves. I have checked today with the courier we use and they are operating as normal back to the UK so I will be sending some oil and soap out for orders I have been holding.

Such is life. I could have died last year with my heart not functioning properly.

 

[czechmate]

Thanks for the update old mc. Sorry about the lost sale. As you say, better than passing last year though. Portugal is not badly effected as I understand, let’s hope it stays that way, esp when Spain is having such a rum time of it.

 

[Danllan]

Glad to read you are alright, I - for one - was unaware of your recent operation etc..

Also very glad to read of the current level-headedness prevalent in Portugal. Nevertheless, if your helpful friend is up for it, if I were you, I'd be sure to buy just a little bit extra at the shops each time, nothing crazy, just a bit of insurance - not forgetting bog rolls!

Keep us posted.

 

[Old McDonald]

Thanks for your responses. Good to know other people are positive about things too. Far too much panic and gloom and doom about.

We had an enquiry from South Africa the day after we had accepted the previous offer, and I contacted him again yesterday. He is still interested after travel becomes a possibility, so perhaps all is not lost. We had used the SA Farmers Weekly and could not stop the first ad, so perhaps that was no bad thing.

We always have a minimum of 4 weeks' supply of everything. That is why we could go into quarantine without notice. We have a long experience of suddenly not being able to get out, all the way back to the 1978/79 winter when we could not move a vehicle for 3 months. I got out once on the horse after about 6 weeks and my wife was not off the place for (I think) 14 weeks. Flooded in when in Australia, more snow in Scotland although both for much shorter periods. It is life; just the same as wildfires. My wife has had the car packed with absolute essentials and ready to leave three times - twice in Australia and once here. I cannot understand all the fuss about folks being asked to stay at home for two weeks.

With the top up on Monday we are now good for at least another 6 weeks. We like peace and quiet.

 

[bovrill]

Good to hear you're still going.
I didn't think you'd have too much concern isolating yourselves from the outside world!
I'd have thought that you might be running your cellar stocks down a bit, in anticipation of a move, but I suppose there's no harm in being prepared for a longer stay.

It's going to be a strange time once we come out of all this, and a remote self sufficient place in a stable country could well be a popular buy in the future.

Reading your memories of the snow in 78/79 (I remember them, but we were only snowed in for three weeks ish, then again in 80/81) made me think of the book Lorna Doone, my copy of which I've just lent to my father to read, where they're snowed in for weeks. A farm in the 17th century would have been a lot more self sufficient, and the civil war (which a big bit of the plot revolves around) was a lot more deadly than the flu!

 

[Old McDonald]

I'd have thought that you might be running your cellar stocks down a bit, in anticipation of a move, but I suppose there's no harm in being prepared for a longer stay.

We did. We had the opportunity of a free back load in October from somebody who bought a house in the village (3kms) and had brought some stuff over. Sent all the Vintage Ports I had bought for the boy and the two grandchldren and a heap of decent quality stuff for long term cellaring. Not sure how many cases, but the number of bottles was well into 3 figures.

We drank a few more when they were here early November to begin the olive harvest and I still have enough left that if I run out of the everyday drinkers I have a few weeks' supply at a bottle a day - mainly reds, a few "Champagne" and whites and some oddities like a 1978 Moscatel de Sétubal and a Samos from a case he sent me a few years back. Plenty of quality bottles still on the shelves if I need to fully restock and I do buy the occasional one to keep up the reserve supply that is left because I do like a bottle of something decent with my fillet steak.

 

[Old McDonald]

Somebody asked on another thread why the situation in Portugal is not as bad as Spain. It could very well be as bad. Cases and deaths are rising. The latest projection from the Health Advisors is that the peak is likely to be at the end of May.

Today’s figures are :

Confirmed cases 5170. (Previous day 4268 so 902 increase.)

Dead 100 (76)

Recovered 43 (43)

Death rate is 1.9% of cases and 7.9% of those aged over 70 – we are approaching 76 and 71 respectively. Of the 100 deaths, 93 were aged over 60, with 21 over 70 and 58 over 80, so it seems the older you are the worse is the likely outcome.

My wife and I put ourselves in quarantine more than two weeks ago and we will stay that way as long as possible. We have home delivery of groceries whenever requested (once so far) by a volunteer, and are good for probably another 6 weeks with that one delivery. Supermarkets remain well stocked and necessary transport is moving. Apparently there was never any panic buying.

 

[czechmate]

I did look earlier mc, and I think the deaths today rose to 24, from 16 yesterday. Which I didn’t think was good

 

[Danllan]

Somebody asked on another thread why the situation in Portugal is not as bad as Spain. It could very well be as bad. Cases and deaths are rising. The latest projection from the Health Advisors is that the peak is likely to be at the end of May.

Today’s figures are :

Confirmed cases 5170. (Previous day 4268 so 902 increase.)

Dead 100 (76)

Recovered 43 (43)

Death rate is 1.9% of cases and 7.9% of those aged over 70 – we are approaching 76 and 71 respectively. Of the 100 deaths, 93 were aged over 60, with 21 over 70 and 58 over 80, so it seems the older you are the worse is the likely outcome.

My wife and I put ourselves in quarantine more than two weeks ago and we will stay that way as long as possible. We have home delivery of groceries whenever requested (once so far) by a volunteer, and are good for probably another 6 weeks with that one delivery. Supermarkets remain well stocked and necessary transport is moving. Apparently there was never any panic buying.

It's good to read your last bit, but I'm not convinced by the prediction for a peak in Portugal at the end of May; looking at the figures released so far a peak at the end of April seems more probable.

 

[Old McDonald]

I did look earlier mc, and I think the deaths today rose to 24, from 16 yesterday. Which I didn’t think was good

Yes, a big jump on small numbers.

It's good to read your last bit, but I'm not convinced by the prediction for a peak in Portugal at the end of May; looking at the figures released so far a peak at the end of April seems more probable.

Apparently the projection is based on the way the numbers have been increasing and the fact that most people are abiding by the advice to go out as little as possible, but a few arrests of eedjits according to news reports.

 

[Old McDonald]

Last three days deaths, 19, 21 and 20. Death rate now over 2% so still not high, but the number of confirmed infections is rising quite steeply. 1035 yesterday and 446 the day before. As with other places there is no report of more recoveries. Seems countries are reluctant to give the "all clear" to those who appear to be recovered. Perhaps they are still infectious, perhaps nobody knows?

 

[Old McDonald]

Two weeks since I last posted on this. Slight increase in daily deaths since then, but running fairly consistently around 30 a day (32 yesterday) with a total up to yesterday of 567 and +/-17500 confirmed cases, just over 500 more than the day before. The population of 10+million is about one-sixth that of the UK.

An interesting statistic I saw yesterday (figures from before the weekend I think) were that travellers from 59 different other countries were 706 of the recorded cases. No indication of course as to how many others they infected. Nobody can say whether there would have been less or more deaths and/or cases worldwide if these people had been forced to stay where they were. Perhaps they would have infected more people in the countries from which they came.

The Azores were clear for quite a while and then had a case with an overseas traveller - allegedly Holland. Others were infected from that one and I understand cases are now into three figures with a small number of deaths. Last time I looked Madeira was similarly affected.

I have been keeping a check on a few other countries from time to time, and there appears to be no relationship between cases and deaths in a given timeframe other than hearsay reports of residents in some countries maintaining safe distancing and restricted movement better than in others. Apparently people are doing well here in that respect.

There is a village across the river to us and whilst typing I have just heard the chimes of one of the regular freezer vans that supplies some meat, fish and other frozen foods. That is good news, because there are a lot of old people in that village who I am sure are totally reliant upon deliveries by somebody else. First one I have heard since the recommendations to stay at home unless unavoidable to travel.