LISBON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- The isolation measures adopted by Portugal at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread public awareness give time and space for the country's health system to be able to serve all those infected with the novel coronavirus, and thus make the Portuguese "miracle," experts and analysts here believe.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa hailed the achievement in the fight against the pandemic in Portugal as a "miracle."
"Outside, many say that what is happening in Portugal is a miracle, because we would not be prepared to face the challenge. But we know that it is not a miracle. It is the result of a lot of sacrifices by the Portuguese. It is the fruit of all of us, we are always in solidarity and mobilized," he said in his televised national speech, announcing the second extension of the state of emergency.
Experts believe that Portugal's war on COVID-19 is successful so far, though they said that it is still too early to declare a "win" over the pandemic.
The main factor behind Portugal's success was the "effectiveness of the containment measures implemented and the way people reacted," said Jose Gomes Ferreira, a Portuguese policy and economics analyst.
The first case of COVID-19 was detected on March 2, and the authorities in Portugal have already started to recommend measures of social isolation.
"When WHO recommends containment measures, Portugal started to act very early," Dulce Salzedas, a health reporter, told Xinhua.
A state of Alert was declared in Portugal before any death associated with COVID-19. Several schools closed and companies adopted the home office policy early in March, even before the government decreed the first state of emergency.
"Hospitals, until now, have not suffered that enormous pressure that has been experienced in Italy and Spain," Salzedas said.
The increase in the number of coronavirus cases has remained stable for three weeks in Portugal, which indicates that the disease has already reached its peak and is about to start to retreat.
Health Minister Marta Temido said during a daily news conference on Saturday that the average rate of contagion by COVID-19 in Portugal currently stands at 0.91, which means that each infected person infects less than one other person, thanks to the containment measures.
Commenting on the evolution of the pandemic in the country, she said that the average number of cases generated from an infected person was 2.08 between Feb. 21 and March 16, adding that the data collected so far "continue to make it possible to estimate that the maximum incidence has been in the past between March 23 and 25."
Even so, the Portuguese president extended the state of emergency for the second time Thursday, which began on March 18 and will continue until May 2.
In addition to assessing the risks of the pandemic, one of the contributing factors of Portugal's "miracle" in controlling the novel coronavirus is its geographical position.
As the country is in the extreme west of Europe, there was enough time to observe what was happening in its neighbors, close the border with Spain and suspend flights with Italy at the beginning of the virus outbreak.
Moreover, COVID-19 hit Portugal at the time of "low season" of tourism.
As a result, there were fewer flights arriving from abroad and fewer foreigners traveling around the country, and thus the country did not have as many "imported cases" of infection.
As of Saturday, Portugal has reported 19,685 cases with 687 deaths, according to the health authorities. Enditem
