well portugal has the highest number of
coronavirus cases in relation to its
population
and a sharp rise in new infections has
prompted several european countries to
offer help germany is sending doctors
nurses
ventilators and hospital bells beds on
a military plane due to land in the next
hour
portugal's ambassador says that the
country will be forever grateful for the
aid
portugal has reported close to half of
all its kovid 19 deaths
in just the past month
and let's bring in dw's yon philip
schultz who is joining us from the
airport in lisbon right now
um yon phillip how important is this
help
it's urgently needed most uh intensive
care units are full
here in portugal sometimes patients have
to wait for
six seven hours in the ambulances in
front of
the hospitals i spoke to a uh an
ambulance driver
last night and she said the situation is
really a nightmare and
any kind of help is appreciated
human resources medical equipment
everything i also talk to other medical
professionals who say that the situation
starts to remind them of what we saw in
bergamo
in northern italy uh at the beginning of
the pandemic
in in march when really the health
system
pretty much collapsed and was
overwhelmed by the pressure
why does portugal have you know one of
the highest
death rates in the past two weeks around
the world why has it been hit so hard
it seems like it's been something like a
perfect storm
evolving here in in portugal the
portuguese government
relaxed restrictions during christmas
time and this was
exactly the time when the new more
aggressive strains
of the virus started to threat in the
country portugal has uh
close links with the uk so the british
variant has
spread here as at a rapid speech
also the portuguese health system is
quite weak one of the weakest
in europe especially after massive cost
cuts
in the past years how are people coping
with the third wave
there's a there's an impressive wave of
solidarity here in the country i've seen
many small projects small initiatives in
the past days
when people try to help medical staff
they try to help
relatives of the victims generally i
also think that the portuguese
really follow the measures put in place
by the government there are some
critical voices that there are still
too much traffic on the streets
considering that we are in a complete
lockdown here of course there's a great
amount of fear
that the worst is still to come here and
that
the crisis is far from over dw's yon
philip schultz
in lisbon thank you
[Applause]
thank you well israel has vaccinated a
greater percentage of its population
than
any other country but the number of new
infections
is still high and the cabinet is set to
convene today to decide whether to
extend the lockdown
authorities say that they are determined
to contain the spread of the disease
while
immunizing as many people as possible as
dw's tanya kramer reports senior
citizens are among those suffering the
most
from the pandemic it's been a long
rather lonely year for ruth rogers since
the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic
last year
the 88-year-old israeli-american has
been mostly confined to her flat
the internet has been her main source of
contact with family and friends
but now she has new hope a week ago she
received her second vaccine shot
they say two weeks after the second
vaccine
so what maybe you can come and visit me
i'm very excited about seeing people in
person i'm really
excited about it it's really really been
hard
not to see people it's a step forward
but she's still very cautious
a large majority of israel's most
vulnerable population over 70
has received their second vaccine shot a
so-called green passport confirms the
vaccination
but for now that doesn't mean any extra
privileges
while israel's rapid vaccination drive
made headlines
the country had to extend its lockdown
once again
to tackle a third wave of the pandemic
the disease is rampant and as you know
we have the variants the south african
variant and we have the uh the
los angeles variant and the british
variant which are
which is dominant currently
the disease is spreading pretty quickly
uh yet the vaccines are spreading
quickly as well and we are raising the
virus with the
vaccine at the izek shamir medical
center
a large hospital in the center of the
country doctors and nurses work
tirelessly to cope with the constant
flow of patients
in serious condition january has been
the deadliest month yet
of the pandemic all of us my colleagues
doctors and nurses
see a lot of cases here
a few hundred meters from the covet 19
ward
it's mostly young people waiting for
their vaccination
last week people over 35 were called up
to get their first jab
over 3 million out of israel's 9 million
citizens
have received at least their first
vaccine dose
in jerusalem ruth rogers and her
caregiver mary
are on their way to a local shopping
center what might seem
ordinary has become special ruth hasn't
been here since march last year
it's strange it's very strange very
strange
i hope in a couple of weeks i'll go into
the store and
and pick out stuff and now
uh it's a whole different experience for
me now i feel back to
back to the real world amid the
uncertainty
she hopes that at some point she will be
able to see family and friends
once the effects of the vaccination
drive kick
in
you