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The extraordinary Council of Ministers this Saturday approved a set of measures that frame the state of emergency that was approved by the Assembly of the Republic and decreed on Friday by the President of the Republic and that will be in force between Monday and November 23 .
Among the measures, the mandatory collection duty between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. stands out in 121 municipalities currently considered at risk for having more than 240 cases of covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days.
The Prime Minister announced at a press conference the “limitation of circulation in public spaces and roads between 11 pm and 5 am “, with exceptions to this” ban on driving on public roads “, such as” durgent and urgent displacements “.
This “curfew” also excludes “situations of people who have to go to work, people who return home from work and people who have to leave urgently, either to go to a health facility, a pharmacy or to help a family member who is sick, “António Costa listed.
Mandatory curfew from 1:00 p.m. on weekends
In addition, in the next two weekends the traffic limitation will be further extended, and it will be prohibited to circulate between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. That is, in the municipalities at risk it will be allowed to circulate on public roads only in the morning.
Thus, commercial establishments will also have time limits on weekends from 1:00 p.m. On Saturdays and Sundays, restaurants can only deliver home delivery. António Costa said that restaurants, commerce and also culture will be the sectors most affected by the restrictions during the next two weekends.
António Costa explained that this limitation was designed to “allow people to have free mornings, to be able to do their shopping, to attend religious ceremonies, to be able to walk with the family, to be with their children in public spaces, to be able to have activities.” during the morning, but avoid at all costs the convivialities that exist after lunch. “
“It is the only way we have to limit and effectively instill in the spirit of each one that we have to interrupt these practices in the next two weekends to try to contain the pandemic,” he stressed, insisting that this is an effort that has than “do it now”.
“We have a clear notion that social interaction has a very important contribution to the spread” of contagion and that the spread develops in the post-employment period, said António Costa, admitting that curfew “is not a magic solution. “, but in this pandemic” there are no magic solutions. “
António Costa presented data that reveal that the family and coexistence context is the main responsible for the infections caused by the new coronavirus. The work context is responsible for 12% of cases, followed by homes, with 8% of contagion cases. The school context and the social context each represent a percentage of 3% of the cases of infection.
Asked about the penal framework for those who do not comply with these rules, the prime minister said that the forces of authority can bring people back to their homes.
“The issue is not a criminal issue, the issue is not a police issue, it is a matter of individual responsibility. That obligation exists, that obligation must be fulfilled ”, added the head of government.
Portugal is thus following what several countries have already adopted to stop the advance of the pandemic. The solution of the mandatory curfew from 11:00 p.m. allows to maintain the closing times of restaurants, cinemas and theaters (22:30 hours on weekdays), at the same time that it allows more energetically prevent concentrations of young people on the road public at night, which authorities say have led to several covid-19 outbreaks.
The measures “are terrible” but “necessary” to avoid total confinement
The prime minister began the press conference to point out that the “set of measures announced since October” and the behavior of the population since then “have not been sufficient to control the growth of the pandemic.”
“We cannot have the slightest doubt that everything possible must be done to control the pandemic,” said António Costa, citing the record numbers of the pandemic, with more than 6,000 infected in the last 24 hours, well above what was registered. a month ago and during the first wave.
If the situation was “serious in October, today it is much more serious” and the “situation is much more difficult” than in the first wave.
António Costa warned of the importance of helping health professionals, who are “doing an extraordinary job.” “We have no right not to do everything in our power to avoid at all costs being one of the people they have to deal with,” he said.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that the measures implemented are “terrible for trade and catering, but necessary to control the pandemic without further general confinement.”
“We are trying to avoid having to do what Ireland already had to do, which was to return to total lockdown,” the prime minister said, adding that “the prospect is to have a December and a Christmas season as close as possible.” . we’re used to it now. ”
The prime minister also added that “at the moment there are no school closings” and “we want to guarantee that the school year will not suffer any problems.”
“We have to make sure that these measures have the least possible impact on people’s lives, that’s why we concentrate that extra effort on the weekend,” he said, considering that the fact of being in “a colder, rainier season , less sunny “can help meet the measure.
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