By Ron Howells • Published: 25 Jun 2021 • 11:40
Portugal Retains Confinement Measures Amid Rising Covid-19 Infections. image: Wikipedia
Portugal Retains Confinement Measures Amid Rising Covid-19 Infections.
Speaking on Thursday, June 24, Cabinet Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told a news conference that the planned deconfinement would be postponed until at least July 11.
“Portugal is clearly in the red zone of our risk matrix, so there are no conditions to continue the deconfinement,” she said, adding that with the “concerning levels of Covid… we don’t have conditions to move forward.”
While plans to move forward were put on hold, the coastal capital city of Lisbon, along with Albufeira and Sesimbra, took two steps further back into lockdown – there are at the moment 19 municipalities on alert over Covid infection levels.
Among the main restrictions is the return of the ban on gatherings with more than 10 people, the strengthening of the supervision of shopping centres and the general closure of stores at 8pm, with the exception made to restaurants for meal service.
The Portuguese capital will see new tougher restrictions imposed on Tuesday, June 29, with people required to provide a negative coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate to enter or exit the city over the weekend.
Restaurants and cafés will also be forced to close at 3.30pm local time at the weekend.
“We are in a fight against time between the progression of the disease and the process of vaccination,” da Silva added.
The country has seen cases spike over the last week, with 1,556 new infections on Thursday – Portugal’s biggest single jump since late February. Earlier this week, the government announced it was stepping up efforts to inoculate the population, with just over a quarter fully vaccinated to date.
“We are going to have to make this effort to balance vaccination and testing,” said the Minister of Health, “There are no magic or miracle recipes,” she insisted, “it must be everyone’s responsibility.” Temido added: “The lines of our reference maps are indicators that lead us to close or accelerate measures depending on the situation. We know that we are with a highly effective risk of transmission and with a number of new cases per day also high.”
Related:
Portugal Tightens Restrictions Due to Increase in Infections
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Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.
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