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António Costa announced this afternoon the measures for the contingency situation. As has already happened in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), as of next Tuesday, meetings with more than ten people will be prohibited in mainland Portugal.
In addition, commercial establishments cannot open before 10 in the morning (except for exceptions), having to close between 20 and 23 hours, this second measure is taken by municipal decision. In shopping center catering areas, there is now a maximum limit of four people per group.
Along with schools, in restaurants, cafes and pastry shops 300 meters from the establishments, there is also a maximum limit of four people per group.
The ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages at service stations also extends to the entire country and, in all other establishments, from 8:00 p.m., except in food establishments, until meals. The prohibition of the consumption of alcoholic beverages on public roads also returns to the rest of the country.
“These measures are not a moral judgment against the parties,” says António Costa, stressing that their objective is to safeguard public health. “Many of the rules that were already in force in AML will apply to the entire country,” António Costa announced.
Sports venues, such as football stadiums, will continue to be without an audience.
The concrete announcement of the measures was made this Thursday, at the Ajuda Palace, in Lisbon, after the meeting of the Council of Ministers, which met to discuss the measures for the next phase in the fight against covid-19, in a at which point the cases are increasing again: this Wednesday the highest number of new infections was recorded since April 20. With the return to school next week, the government had already announced, this morning, the strengthening of public transport.
In the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto
In addition to the general measures, António Costa also announced specific measures for the country’s two metropolitan areas, Porto and Lisbon, where there is a higher population density and, consequently, a higher risk of contagion.
It is “a greater effort to avoid the concentration of people”, defines the Prime Minister, announcing that workplaces are required to have a time lag, requiring different entry and exit times, as well as schedules. differentiated breaks and meals.
The services must also work with mirror teams: with rotation schedules between teleworking and face-to-face work.
Attempts should also be made to reduce daily commuting.
In the schools
With the return to classes in person, the government guarantees the readjustment of the functioning of schools to the new health reality, contingency plans in all educational establishments, the distribution of personal protective equipment and a framework for adaptation to suspicious, positive cases. or sprouts. To this is added the measure of restriction of groups up to a limit of four in establishments within a radius of 300 meters around the schools.
“We have to organize ourselves so that everything goes well,” says the Prime Minister, who hopes that the school year can always end in person. Even so, the distance education network will remain, either as a support, or if it is necessary to use the Home Study.
In homes
To address the problems in residential structures for the elderly, the government establishes “district rapid intervention brigades”, which will aim to contain and stabilize outbreaks in homes.
These 18 teams are expected to be operational by the end of September. According to the Government, these district rapid intervention brigades to contain and stabilize outbreaks in homes involve doctors and nurses.
Changing routines justifies extending the contingency to the entire continent
The prime minister recalled that the risk of transmissibility never deviated “significantly” from the 1% mark, but assumes concern about the “sustained growth” of new cases. António Costa asked once again to use the application to smartphone “Covid Stayaway”, which has already been downloaded 735,243 times as of this Thursday.
At the end of August, precisely at a press conference after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, justified the decision of this Government to impose new regulations as of September 15, of preventive way. , with the “significant change in routines” that will occur.
“The Government considers that this significant change in routines, in the use of transportation, the return to school and a more significant return to the labor market may require additional measures,” said Mariana Vieira da Silva.
On Monday, in Porto, at the beginning of the meeting that marked the return of meetings between experts, politicians and social partners to analyze the epidemiological situation of covid-19, the Prime Minister, António Costa, warned that Portugal will enter “a phase criticism ”due to the change in season, the start of the school year and the resumption of many activities, demanding compliance with the regulations for the control of the pandemic.
This meeting, according to an executive source, would be important to agree on these measures that will be adopted from Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the head of the socialist executive reaffirmed that a confinement situation “is not a scenario”, because the country would not support it, and again asked the Portuguese to be “extremely disciplined” in complying with the regulations.
According to the epidemiological bulletin of the General Directorate of Health (DGS) published this Wednesday, Portugal registered three more deaths related to covid-19 and 646 new cases of infection by the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 898,503 deaths and infected more than 27.6 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
After Europe succeeded China as the center of the pandemic in February, the American continent is now the one with the most confirmed cases and the most deaths.
