“With the cessation
of the state of alert, on October 1, 2022, and the consequent change in
testing, there was a sharp drop in the Rt that may not correspond to a real
decrease”, indicates the INSA weekly report on the evolution of the pandemic in
Portugal.
On 29 September, the Council of Ministers decided not to
renew the state of alert in mainland Portugal due to the Covid-19 pandemic,
having also ended the validity of several laws, decree-laws and resolutions
approved in the context of combating Covid-19.
In practice, in addition to isolation being no longer
mandatory, tests for Covid-19 are no longer prescribed through the SNS24 and
are now reimbursed by medical prescription.
The test for Covid-19 is only reimbursed 100% when
prescribed by a unit of the National Health Service (SNS).
According to the INSA report, the Rt - which estimates the
number of secondary cases of infection resulting from each person carrying the
virus - dropped from 0.98 to 0.63 nationally and the five-day average of new
daily infections fell from 2,644 to 953.
By regions, only the Azores (1.03) and Madeira (1.13) have
an Rt above the threshold of 1, with this indicator having dropped
significantly to 0.62 in the North, 0.62 in the Center, 0.64 in Lisbon and Vale
do Tejo, 0.75 in the Alentejo and 0.70 in the Algarve.