The president of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, announced this Friday that he tested positive for Covid-19, after returning from Brussels and Portugal, and canceled all planned activities.
“I just tested positive for Covid-19. I have mild symptoms and I am completing the quarantine period, at home, ”reported the head of state, on his personal page on the social network Facebook.
Jose Maria Neves tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from Brusselswhere he participated in the 15th Edition of the European Development Days, and carried out a parallel agenda of contacts on the sidelines of the event.
On Thursday, he reported that he was in Portugal, where he visited the facilities of the SIC television station and the Expresso newspaperand was interviewed by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, for an interview program with 50 personalities, as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Expresso.
The Cape Verdean head of state had scheduled for this Thursday afternoon events to receive the Olympic torch and audience with the executive secretary of the Interstate Committee to Combat Drought in the Sahel (CILSS), but they were cancelled.
José Maria Neves is the second politician to publicly reveal having been infected with the new coronavirus, after the prime minister, two weeks ago.
Cape Verde reached a daily record of nearly 1,400 new infections with the new coronavirus in a single day in January, the new Ómicron variant already circulating in the archipelago, registering then more than 7,000 active cases, but the situation improved rapidly from the second week of January.
The country returned to the alert situation on March 6, the least serious of three levels, currently maintaining a “minimum” level of restrictions Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of a mask on public roads is no longer mandatory and, at the end of April, also in closed spaces.
In recent days, the country has registered a trend of increasing infections, with 1,079 currently active cases.
Since the start of the pandemic, Cape Verde has already registered a total of 58,995 accumulated positive cases, of which 57,461 recovered from the disease and 403 died.
The Cape Verdean Prime Minister ruled out this Monday a return to restrictive measures, such as the mandatory use of a mask in closed spaces, due to the increase in cases, but recommended self-protection.
Source: Observadora
