Document 19 of 267. 



                            Copyright 2000 Associated Press   
                                   AP Worldstream 

                        January 3, 2000; Monday 09:48 Eastern Time 

SECTION: International news 

DISTRIBUTION: Europe;Britian;Scandinavia;England 

LENGTH: 239 words 

HEADLINE: Millennium bug causes minor disruptions in Portugal 

DATELINE: LISBON, Portugal 

BODY: 
    Minor Y2K glitches occurred in Portugal after the millennium rollover but no vital computer
systems were affected, a senior official said Monday. 

The disruption occurred in computers and applications that previously had been declared
Y2K-compliant, Science Minister Mariano Gago said, adding that the government had spent
millions of dollars over the past two years to prepare for the transition. 

''Despite all our efforts, problems still arose, which gives us some idea of the chaos that could have
happened,'' Gago told a news conference. 

Utilities and the financial sector were functioning normally, according to Gago. ''On the whole, the
situation is calm,'' he said. 

However, isolated glitches were reported in ministerial databases, the processing of some
government payments, and hospital admission procedures. Those problems were quickly corrected or
the procedures were carried out manually in accordance with contingency plans, according to Gago. 

Two ventilators usually used in a public hospital's operating theater failed to work when they were
checked after midnight Friday. They were idle at the time because no surgery was scheduled for the
rollover as a precaution. The units, manufactured by Germany's Drager, were replaced. 

Gago stressed that the Y2K preparations had allowed the government to modernize the public
administration's computer systems, some of which were out of date. 

(bh/cg) 

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH 

LOAD-DATE: January 3, 2000