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The mandatory curfew at 1:00 pm during the weekend can end in most of the country, starting next Monday, and will remain only in 20 counties, most in the north of the country; they can close universities and polytechnics, as well as large shopping centers. All the measures that are being “considered” by the Government and that, this Tuesday, were presented to the parties heard by the President of the Republic in Belém.
The measures of the current state of emergency will not end until next Monday, at 11:59 p.m. But the Government and the President of the Republic are already studying what they are going to do next. One thing is for sure: Marcelo will request to renew the state of emergency for another 15 days, and it counts, once again, that the central bloc in the Assembly of the Republic gives the green light to this renewal. The doubt lies in the measures that the Government is preparing to take, and it is precisely so that the parties are not surprised by the new – and controversial – mandatory curfews that Marcelo is already leaving them clues.
That was what he did this Tuesday in the meetings he held with the Liberal Initiative, Chega, the environmental party Os Verdes and the PAN. As found by the Observer, Marcelo informed the parties that the Government is preparing to, as António Costa anticipated, dividing the municipalities with the highest risk of contagion into three levels and applying more proportional measures to each one. In this way, the the mandatory curfew at 1:00 p.m. on weekends would cease to be in effect across the country – and would enter into force only in 20 riskiest counties, the majority in the north of the country.
More: the government is also “considering closing universities and polytechnics”, which are proving to be a strong contagion site, but without thinking of closing schools. As Mr. José Luís Ferreira, de las Verdes informed the Observer, this was one of the questions that the President of the Republic said that the Government was “evaluating”, and there is a guarantee that, in schools, “priority continues classroom teaching ”. In the middle echelons of the risk municipalities, the Government is also studying the possibility of closing large shopping centers. “It is a possibility,” says the deputy after what he heard from the President of the Republic.
All the measures that the Government will have to settle in the Council of Ministers after the Parliament approves the renewal of the state of emergency, something that should happen on Friday morning. Before that, the presidential decree that marks the scope of the state of emergency should already have clearer clues about the measures that will be based there.
For now, these are the clues that Marcelo leaves to the parties about what lies ahead:
Counties will be divided into three levels depending on the degree of risk of contagion, and the measures applied will be proportionate.
1st step: Those between 240 and 480 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 14 days. In these municipalities, according to the deputy of the Greens José Luís Ferreira, Marcelo anticipated that the mandatory curfew will be applied from 11 to 5 in the morning every day of the week (including the weekend);
2nd step: Those between 480 and 960 new cases. In these municipalities, where the municipality of Lisbon was included, for example, the curfew rule will be the same – from 23:00 to 05:00 every day of the week including the weekend – but with additional measures. One of the measures under study is, for example, the eventual closure of large shopping centers (the largest among the large ones).
3rd step: Those who have more than 960 cases. Only in these counties, which Marcelo told the parties that there were “about 20”, almost all in the Greater Porto region, should the curfew measures continue as they are in force, that is, starting at 11 at night . week and from noon on weekends.
See how many cases there are per municipality in the last 14 days:
How many Covid-19 cases are there in your county? What are the ten most affected municipalities? And less? The pandemic in graphics
PAN deputy André Silva told reporters at the end of the meeting that this curfew could be moved to a longer schedule (“never before 3 pm or 4 pm”) to allow lunch time and not “devastate more” the restaurant sector, but it is not clear for now if this calendar will be applied in the highest risk municipalities or if it will be applied, for example, in the middle level. It is true that, among the parties heard today in Belém (IL, Chega, PEV and PAN) all agreed that there was an “excess” and a lack of “proportionality” in the measure adopted by the Government to impose the closure of trade and catering from 1 pm across the country, on weekends, doing little to flatten the contagion curve and doing much to destroy restaurant and retail businesses.
Questioned by the Observer, the deputy José Luís Ferreira, reiterated, at the end of the meeting, that the information that was delivered was that, in the municipalities of the third level, the current collection time must be maintained. In other words, I close at 1pm on the weekend.
Universities me polytechnics can close. It was information given to the Observer by the deputy of the Greens, at the end of the meeting. “The government is considering closing universities and polytechnics,” he said, putting it at the “hypothesis” level. The argument is that these places have proven to be high points of contagion, and the transition to the distance education model may be easier in higher education than in basic and secondary education; in this, nothing changes. In relation to schools, there is no forecast of closure and the Government continues to favor classroom teaching.
In relation to NativeLikewise, the parties were informed that the Government must speak with the country about the measures to be applied during the festive season in “early December”, never before. Behind us, for now, is the idea of an almost total closure in the first two weeks of December, which takes place on the holidays of 1 and 8, as the Government came to consider in the meetings it held with the parties before the state of emergency . This does not mean that there are no specific measures for this period of holidays and bridges.
Marcelo will still have to meet with António Costa, who will still have to meet with the Council of Ministers. This Wednesday the auditions that are missing in Belém will continue: we still have to listen to CDS, PCP, BE, PSD and PS. For now, all, with the exception of the PAN (which did not disclose), said they would vote against the new state of emergency. But the President of the Republic and the Government have the PSD and the PS, in addition to the CDS, which two weeks ago voted in favor.
