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Prime Minister António Costa reaffirmed that “we cannot once again paralyze the entire country”, ruling out the possibility of a lockdown similar to that which occurred in March, when the state of emergency was due to the “brutal cost” of these “global strike” measures. . economy ”in employment, family income and business life.
“We will have to adopt the measures that are necessary and that are sufficient. In other words, do not stop doing everything necessary to contain the pandemic, but nothing more than is necessary and that is an excessive disturbance for families, companies, entities and schools, ”said the Prime Minister.
At the entrance of the meeting to assess the epidemiological situation of Covid-19 in Portugal, this time held at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto -after the first ten had taken place in the Infarmed auditorium, in Lisbon- , the Prime Minister admitted that we are now “at a crucial moment in which the number of infections will necessarily increase”, with the return to classes and face-to-face work, as well as the entry into the fall and winter season, but he ruled out that the state of contingency that will become effective throughout the territory as of September 15 will bring measures that “are excessive.”
Regarding the need for the meeting, António Costa stressed the importance of listening to the experts to try to understand, also from the data of the pandemic in other European countries, why “sooner than expected” there is a “significant increase ”From COVID-19 Cases.
Advising the Portuguese to maintain the rules of personal hygiene, individual protection and physical distance from each other that reduce the risk of contagion, António Costa stressed that “from March to here we learned” that compliance with these rules prevented an “exponential increase in the pandemic ”. Something that, in addition to avoiding a greater loss of human life, will also have allowed to maintain the response capacity of the health services, guaranteeing the Prime Minister that the percentage of occupation of long-term care beds does not exceed 63% “even at the most critical moment. ”But, although he said that since then the capacity of the National Health Service has been strengthened, Costa acknowledged that the capacity is not unlimited.
Covid-19 has caused 1,843 deaths in Portugal since the start of the pandemic, with 60,507 confirmed cases, of which 15,648 remain active, 49 of which are in intensive care.
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