Portugal will allow students to return to school from next week and nightclubs to reopen on Jan. 14 despite a record surge in COVID-19 cases, with hospital admissions still well below levels seen earlier in the pandemic, the government said on Thursday.
"It is evident that the Omicron variant is less severe ... vaccination has been effective against it," Prime Minister Antonio Costa told a news conference, referring to the fast-spreading variant that emerged in late 2021.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comThe variant hit Portugal - one of the world's most vaccinated nations, with 89% of its people fully inoculated - in November, leading to an increase in cases.
It registered 25 fatalities, up from Wednesday's 14, but only a fraction of the over 300 daily deaths in the previous peak of the pandemic in late January, when the vaccination campaign had just kicked off. Hospitals held 1,311 COVID-19 patients, compared with a peak of 6,869 on Feb. 1.From Monday, only coronavirus-infected people and those who live with them need to isolate, while those who have received a booster shot - about 3 million people - no longer need to do so.
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