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After an hour and a half of the crisis cabinet meeting, António Costa addressed the country in a pedagogical and awareness-raising speech on covid-19. The Prime Minister admitted this Friday that the “seriousness” of the situation cannot be hidden -as of next week the country will be able to reach a thousand new cases of contagion a day-, but defended that we should not be afraid, but rather caution . The message is clear, even if it is not new: every citizen has to help stop the pandemic, because the country cannot handle a new confinement.
“We have to be able to stop the growth of the pandemic. We cannot stop the country like in March, now the control of the pandemic depends on the responsibility of each one, of each one of us,” António Costa told reporters after leaving the emergency meeting to follow the evolution of covid-19.
The head of Government insisted that the best support for the NHS is to prevent the risk of contagion with the new coronavirus, calling for the use of the social mask to prevent the country from stopping again, since the “social cost of the confinement was brutal” . “We cannot stop allowing children to go to school, forbidding families to visit their loved ones at home, we cannot, when it comes to Christmas, separate families as we had to do at Easter. So that we have to stop the pandemic “through our social responsibility,” he reinforced.
As an appeal, the Prime Minister listed five essential rules: wearing a mask “as much as possible and mandatory when necessary”; maintain regular hand hygiene throughout the day; Strictly respect the respiratory etiquette, that is, cough through the elbow and never through the hands, maintain the appropriate physical distance in each circumstance and the effective use of the Stayaway Covid application.
“There cannot be any kind of relaxation”
“It is an immense responsibility that we have. It is not because you are young that the responsibility is less. I assume that we all think that we are not contaminated, but we cannot be sure, so our responsibility is permanent and there cannot be any kind of relaxation ”, The prime minister stressed, recalling that there are several cases of asymptomatic infections and that it is necessary to protect the elderly.
The prime minister also considered that the “enormous civic sense” of the Portuguese was the key to success in the months before the pandemic. Civic responsibility is as important today as it was in March, “he said.
By admitting that the growth of infections in the country follows the trend in Europe, Costa argued that only citizens can help stop the pandemic if they comply with hygiene and safety recommendations. “It is not worth trying to devalue the seriousness of the situation. We already know that the virus does not walk alone, we are the ones who carry it with us. It is essential to do what is recommended. Everything else is very important, but accessory”, adds.
Asked about the situation of the hospitals, the Prime Minister guaranteed that the pressure on the NHS “is still under control” and anticipated what would be known minutes later, in the DGS bulletin: a decrease in the number of hospitalizations and hospitalizations in intensive care.
Record of 23 thousand tests to covid-19
Costa also recognized that it is necessary to continue to ensure greater capacity and speed of testing, to adopt isolation measures, as well as to strengthen the capacity of the NHS. And she announced that on Wednesday a new record of 23,000 tests was reached on covid-19.
Earlier, the head of government had already asked this morning, during a visit to the Alcochete High School Institute, responsible behavior of citizens so that they comply with hygiene and safety regulations to stop the spread of the virus. He also asked everyone to follow suit and join the StayAway Covid app. “Respect, outside the schools, the rules that we all have to have here. We cannot lose what we achieved this week, which was the ability to have schools operating normally throughout the country, ”he emphasized.
The emergency meeting of the crisis office was called yesterday by António Costa due to the “continuous increase” in new cases of covid-19. “To raise public awareness about the adoption of preventive and security measures against covid-19”, after the General Directorate of Health (DGS) reported on Thursday 10 deaths and 770 new cases of infection by new coronavirus, which corresponded the largest increase since April.
