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“Following the general trend in Europe, we are experiencing strong daily growth of new cases. If this trend continues, next week we will reach 1,000 new cases per day ”. It was with this alarm note that the Prime Minister started the brief press conference this Friday after the emergency meeting with the crisis office to follow the evolution of the covid-19.
The meeting, scheduled for 11:30 am at the Prime Minister’s residence in S. Bento, began at 12:30 pm and lasted at approximately 1:30 am. The objective of the meeting was “to sensitize the public about the adoption of preventive and security measures against covid-19” (disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus), which this Thursday reached the highest increase in cases since 10 April, but at the moment there has not been much news.
The guidelines for the next combat phase should only be known next week, when the General Directorate of Health (DGS) releases the measures of the plan for the fall / winter, said the Prime Minister.
Without answering all the journalists’ questions, the Prime Minister did not reveal the content of the meeting, nor did he give any new advice or recommendations, repeating the narrative of individual responsibility, in which each one must be a “policeman for himself”. “If we all comply with the basic rules, we will be able to control the pandemic. The virus does not walk alone. We are the ones who transmit it to ourselves. Everything else is important, but it is accessory. Of course, the capacity of the National Health Service must be strengthened. “. Cheers, to test more and faster. But first of all we have to do what depends on us ”, he said.
“Schools cannot close again, the elderly cannot stop having visits to their homes. It would be unthinkable to have a Christmas like Easter”, stressed the prime minister.
Despite the vote of confidence in the services, António Costa asked for caution, even if people do not have symptoms. “Most people are infected without symptoms, being vehicles of transmission. So our responsibility is permanent and there can be no relaxation. I understand that at the end of the months there is already fatigue, but this is not a 100 meter race, it is a marathon ”, declared the government leader.
It is also because the road is long that the Prime Minister ruled out a new confinement as a solution to combat the pandemic, recalling the harsh consequences that this stage brought to the country at the beginning of the year.
“Stopping the country had a huge cost. It was horrible. It destroyed thousands of jobs, ”he recalls. “The costs of not having face-to-face classes were very significant. In the first five weeks of this academic year, an effort will be made to recover what was lost ”, he exemplified this morning, hours after having also visited a school.
This meeting was also attended by the ministers of State, Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, State and Foreign Relations, Augusto Santos Silva, State and Presidency, Marina Vieira da Silva, State and Finance, João Leão, National Defense, João Gomes Cravinho , Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita, Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, Health, Marta Temido and Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos.
Also included in this crisis cabinet are the Secretaries of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Vice President for Defense, Youth and Sports and Mobility.
