“The greatest impact of the epidemic was in the historical center and least in the northern part of the city,” said Riccardo Valente. “Ramaldi and Baranhus dioceses were the least influential in terms of the economic crisis.”
The Chancellor, speaking at the extraordinary session of the Municipal Assembly of Porto, at the request of the Left Bloc to discuss local work and the economy, presented statements from the Municipal Council of Economics for the period from 2016 to 2019 (before the pandemic) and after the pandemic.
According to Riccardo Valente, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been “brutal from an economic point of view”, with the tourism and hotel sector “collapsed”.
The consultant in charge of economy, tourism and trade noted that “the data we have is data on the average occupancy rate in February of 5%, and today it will not reach double digits,” adding that the impact of the epidemic on the tourist city’s rate was also “sharp.”
Riccardo Valente emphasized that before the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, the city was experiencing an “increasing increase in companies, employment and value added” as well as “a decrease in the number of beneficiaries of social inclusion income.” The employment center increased by 35% between March 2020 and 2021 in the province .
“This growth is happening at all levels of qualification,” he said, stressing that the age group that suffered the greatest impact was the age group from 25 to 34 years.
The consultant pointed out that the city’s cafes and pastries witnessed a “decrease of 83%”, and “restaurant services” of “88%”, and a “total collapse” of the hairdressing sector when it reached a decline of 100%.
Riccardo Valente also stated that during the pandemic, “exports increased by 3%” and “imports decreased by 5%”, arguing that this “shows the character of the companies located in the city”.
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed at least 3,989,935 people worldwide, resulting from more than 183.7 million cases of the novel coronavirus, according to the latest assessment by AFP.
In Portugal, since the beginning of the epidemic, in March 2020, 17,117 people died and 890,571 cases of infection were recorded, according to the Directorate General of Health.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which was discovered in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in countries such as the United Kingdom, India or South Africa.
SPYC // ME
Lusa / end
