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A wave of outrage prompted more than 10,000 Portuguese emigrants in Switzerland to sign a petition demanding that Portugal be removed from the list of countries considered at high risk of infection by the new coronavirus. The classification of Portugal as a risk zone by Switzerland forces emigrants who want to spend Christmas and the end of the year in Portugal to a mandatory quarantine of ten days upon their return, which entails the cancellation of trips that were already booked . We are a family owned and operated business.
Switzerland announced earlier this month that it would put Portugal on the list of high-risk countries from next Monday, the 14th, according to data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). English) that the emigrants who protest say they are completely out of date, since they refer to a time when the country was going through the peak of the covid-19 pandemic and the number of new cases of contagion was still very high.
If the decision is not changed – and the migrants believe that this may happen after having sent the petition to the Swiss Ministry of Health (Office Fédéral de la Santé Publique) -, Portugal will join this “black” list, as will the Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland, as announced on the 4th, ten days in advance. The criteria for inclusion in the list are as follows: if the incidence exceeds that of Switzerland by at least 60 new cases of infection, the country is considered to be at high risk. But if that was true at the time the decision was made (December 2), the situation has changed substantially in the meantime.
“This decision is all the more incomprehensible since it is perceived that Switzerland currently has more new cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants than Portugal, despite having less population (about eight million)”, argues Samuel Soares, author of the petition. that this Wednesday it was sent to the Swiss Ministry of Health by certified mail. “The amount of covid-19 is evolving rapidly and is decreasing a lot in Portugal,” he says.
565 cases per 100,000 inhabitants
This Thursday the ECDC indicated that Portugal had 565 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, less than Switzerland, “so the Portuguese community does not understand how a list that is already fully in force can come into effect next Monday. outdated that penalizes the third largest foreign community in Switzerland ”, lament the emigrants who have multiplied in protests on social networks and in the Swiss media.
Could this decision be changed in time? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured the PUBLIC that it is carrying out “diplomatic efforts” for Switzerland to review this decision. Portugal has been closely monitoring the situation generated by the classification of our country as a ‘risk zone’ by Switzerland “and has provided” the Swiss authorities with the most up-to-date information on the epidemiological situation. “” The progressive improvement in Portugal in recent weeks, “a” positive trend “that” makes the decision of the Swiss authorities no longer justified, “he added.
Portugal was already on the Swiss list of countries with conditional arrivals in October, but had left by the end of the month.
