The Government decree on the third period of state of emergency in Portugal due to the pandemic of invite-19 maintains almost all the restrictions and rules established almost a month ago.
The main changes relate to the exception open to the duty of withdrawal to allow participation in the official celebrations of Labor Day, on May 1, and the lifting of the sanitary fence in the municipality of Ovar.
The state of emergency in Portugal was enacted in March and, in the first period, was in effect between the 22nd of that month and the 2nd of April. The second period of the state of emergency began on April 3 and ended on Friday.
The third period, which entered into force at 12:00 am on Saturday, will continue until May 2 and establishes the following rules:
+++ Mandatory containment +++
They are in compulsory confinement, in a health establishment, at home or in another place defined by health authorities:
– Patients with covid-19 and those infected with SARS-Cov2.
– Citizens under “active surveillance”.
In these cases, breach of the containment obligation constitutes a crime of disobedience.
+++ Special duty of protection +++
They are subject to a special duty of protection:
– Those over 70 years old.
– Immunocompromised and patients with chronic disease who should be considered at risk, namely hypertensive, diabetic, cardiovascular patients, patients with chronic respiratory disease and cancer patients (they can, however, except in a medical condition, circulate for the exercise of professional activity ).
Whoever is subject to a special duty of protection can only travel on public spaces and roads to:
– Acquisition of goods and services.
– Travel for health reasons.
– Travel to post offices and post offices, bank branches or insurance companies.
– Short trips for physical activity, collective physical activity being prohibited.
– Short trips for company pets.
– Other reasons of force majeure or imperative necessity, as long as duly justified.
(These restrictions do not apply to health professionals and other workers from health and social care institutions, civil protection agents, security forces and services, military and civilian personnel of the Armed Forces, inspectors of the Food and Economic Security Authority, holders of political office, magistrates and leaders of the social partners).
+++ General duty of home collection +++
Citizens who are not subject to “mandatory confinement” or “special duty of protection” can only travel in public spaces and roads, or in spaces and private roads similar to public roads for:
– Acquisition of goods and services.
– Travel to perform professional activities.
– Looking for a job or responding to a job offer.
– Displacement for health reasons, including transportation of persons to whom such care should be administered, or blood donation.
– Travel for the emergency reception of victims of domestic violence, trafficking in human beings, children and young people at risk, decreed by a judicial authority or Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People, in a residential or family home.
– Travel to assist vulnerable people, people with disabilities, children, parents, the elderly or dependents.
– Travel to accompany minors.
– Short trips to “enjoy moments outdoors”.
– Travel to schools and daycare centers.
– Short trips for physical activity, collective physical activity being prohibited.
– Travel to volunteer activities.
– Displacement for “imperative family reasons”, such as fulfilling parental responsibility sharing.
– Visits for visits, “when authorized”, delivery of essential goods to people who are disabled or deprived of their freedom of movement.
– Participation in procedural acts with the judicial entities.
– Travel to post offices and post offices, bank branches and agencies of insurance brokers or insurance companies.
– Short trips for walking pets and feeding animals.
– Travel by veterinarians, animal keepers for veterinary medical care, colony caregivers recognized by the municipalities, volunteers from zoophilic associations with animals in charge who need to travel to animal shelters and municipal veterinary services for animal collection and assistance .
– Travel by persons with free transit.
– Travel of personnel from diplomatic, consular missions and international organizations located in Portugal, as long as they are related to the performance of official functions.
– Travel required to exercise press freedom.
– Return home.
– Participation in the official celebrations of the Workers’ Day, celebrated on May 1, “by observing the recommendations of the health authorities, namely in terms of social distance”. The organization and participation of citizens in the celebrations of Labor Day will be articulated by the security forces and services with the union centrals.
– Other activities of a similar nature or for other reasons of “force majeure or imperative necessity”, as long as they are duly justified.
+++ Circulation of private vehicles +++
Private vehicles can travel on public roads to carry out permitted activities or to refuel at gas stations.
+++ High-performance athletes and coaches +++
The activity of high-performance athletes, coaches and sport companions of adapted sports is equivalent to professional activity.
+++ Special limitations in the municipality of Ovar +++
In the municipality of Ovar, the circulation and permanence of people on the public road is prohibited, “including travel with origin or destination in that municipality, except those necessary and urgent”.
Exceptions to the ban on circulation and staying on public roads are considered:
– Purchase or sale of food, hygiene or pharmaceutical goods, goods traded in industrial or commercial establishments and the provision of services authorized to operate.
– Access to health care units.
– Access to the workplace, but workers have to circulate with a statement from the employer certifying that they are performing their professional activities.
– Assistance and care for the elderly, minors, dependents and especially vulnerable people.
– Travel for the emergency reception of victims of domestic violence or human trafficking, as well as children and young people at risk.
– Participation in procedural acts with the judicial entities.
– Travel to post offices and post offices, bank branches and insurance companies.
The operation of industrial, commercial and service establishments located in the municipality of Ovar, authorized to operate will have to obey some rules:
– The number of workers permanently in the establishment has to guarantee a distance of at least three meters between jobs.
– Mandatory use of a mask by all workers within the establishment.
– The capacity of common living spaces, including canteens, is limited to one third, simultaneously.
– The provision of work is limited to citizens over 60 years of age or subject to the “special duty of protection” (immunocompromised and patients with chronic illness who should be considered at risk).
The municipal civil protection commission of Ovar remains in operation and the respective municipal civil protection emergency plan is in execution.
The activity of security forces and services and rescue services operating in the municipality of Ovar can be reinforced, if necessary, by personnel from other geographical areas, in conjunction with the municipal civil protection structure.
+++ Telework +++
Teleworking is mandatory, regardless of employment, whenever the functions in question allow.
+++ Rental and “real estate exploitation” +++
The closure of facilities or establishments due to the state of emergency cannot be invoked as a basis for resolution, denunciation or other form of extinction of non-housing lease contracts or other forms of property exploitation, nor as a basis for the obligation to vacate buildings where they are installed.
+++ E-commerce and services remotely or through an electronic platform +++
E-commerce activities, service provision activities that are provided remotely, without contact with the public, or that develop their activity through an electronic platform, can continue to operate.
+++ Traveling sellers +++
The activity is allowed by itinerant sellers, for the provision of essential goods or other goods considered essential, in the locations where this activity is necessary (the identification of the locations will be defined by the municipalities, after a favorable opinion from the local health authority).
+++ Rental of passenger vehicles without driver +++
Renting a car without a driver (‘rent-a-car’) is permitted in the following situations:
– Authorized travel, namely for the purchase of essential goods or services, namely medicines, and travel for health reasons or to assist other people.
– For the exercise of retail trade or authorized services.
– To provide assistance to damaged and immobilized or damaged drivers and vehicles.
– When vehicles are intended to provide essential public services.
+++ Restrictions on access to wholesale establishments and markets +++
The maximum occupancy per square meter of area is 0.04 people, the rule being applied to wholesale trade establishments and any markets and auctions authorized to operate.
Wholesale food distribution establishments can sell their products directly to the public, and must ensure that the goods are available for purchase in unit form.
+++ Funeral activity +++
Companies that carry out funeral activities remain in operation and perform the funeral services for the dead diagnosed with covid-19.
+++ Authorizations or suspensions in special cases +++
Retail trade and service activities located along the motorway network, inside airports and in hospitals continue to operate.
+++ Safety and hygiene rules +++
In retail or service establishments that maintain activity, “a minimum distance of two meters between people” must be guaranteed.
Consumers must remain in the space “as long as is strictly necessary for the purchase of the products”, their consumption being prohibited inside establishments.
In “vending machines”, payment terminals, dispensers of passwords and tickets or rented vehicles, those responsible for the space or operators must ensure “periodic disinfection of such objects or surfaces”.
+++ Priority service +++
Retail establishments or service establishments that continue to operate must give priority to “persons subject to a special duty of protection”, as well as health professionals, members of the security, protection and rescue forces and services, armed forces personnel and the provision of social support services.
+++ Free movement of goods +++
Movement restrictions, including in municipalities where a sanitary fence has been determined, do not affect the free movement of goods.
+++ Public services +++
Citizen stores are closed, maintaining in-person service by making appointments in the branch network of the different services, as well as providing these services through digital media and through contact centers with citizens and companies.
The Government can determine the functioning of public services considered essential.
The executive can also define “guidelines on the cases in which Public Administration workers may be required to exercise functions in a different place than usual, in a different entity or in different working conditions and schedules”.
+++ Exceptional regime of social support activities +++
During the state of emergency, social equipment that is able to come into operation and equipped with the necessary equipment can be used.
The Institute of Social Security will set the number of vacancies in the establishments, “privileging the reception of people with hospital discharge and other needs detected in the community”.
+++ Strengthening the Authority’s means and powers for Working Conditions +++
Whenever a labor inspector checks for evidence of illegal dismissal “he notifies the employer to rectify the situation”.
With the notification to the employer and until the situation of the worker is regularized or the judicial decision is final, the employment contract does not end, maintaining the right to retribution, as well as the obligations under social security.
Inspectors and senior technicians from inspection services may be required to temporarily reinforce the Authority for Working Conditions.
The Authority for Working Conditions is authorized to contract the purchase of external services to assist in the performance of its activity.
+++ Religious and cult events +++
The holding of religious celebrations and other worship events that involve an agglomeration of people is prohibited.
The holding of funerals is conditional on the adoption of organizational measures that guarantee “the absence of clusters of people and the control of safety distances”, namely the establishment of a maximum attendance limit, to be determined by the municipality, which manages the cemetery.
+++ Personal protection +++
All activities that remain in operation or operation must respect the recommendations of the health authorities, namely in terms of hygiene and the distances to be observed between people.
+++ Public health guarantee +++
The Government can determine exceptional measures to link the services and establishments of the National Health Service with the private and social sector for the provision of health care.
The Government can issue orders and instructions to guarantee the supply of goods and the functioning of services in the production centers affected by the scarcity of products necessary to protect public health.
“Temporary requisition” can be made for industries, factories, workshops, fields or facilities of any kind, including health centers, services and private health establishments.
“Temporary requisition” can be made for all types of goods and services, including professionals, and the imposition of mandatory benefits on any entity, where appropriate and indispensable for the protection of public health.
+++ Exceptional suspension of termination of employment contracts +++
During the validity of the state of emergency, the possibility of terminating the employment contracts of health professionals linked to the services and establishments integrated in the National Health Service is temporarily and exceptionally suspended.
+++ Suspension of the obligation to publish in the Bulletin of Labor and Employment +++
The mandatory publication of legislative acts to be approved by the Government on labor legislation is suspended in the Labor and Employment Bulletin, as it may “represent a delay in the entry into force of urgent legislative measures”, in the context of combating the covid-19 pandemic.
When this suspension occurs, the Government directly consults the social partners, through electronic means, with a 24-hour deadline for pronouncement.
+++ Road and rail traffic +++
The Government may determine the closure of road and rail traffic, for reasons of public health, safety or fluidity of traffic or the restriction on the circulation of certain types of vehicles.
+++ Sanitary fences ++++
They are established by the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Health, following a proposal by the health authorities.
+++ Transportation +++
Cleaning of passenger transport vehicles is mandatory, according to the recommendations established by the Ministry of Health.
The capacity is reduced to one third of the maximum number of seats available to “guarantee an adequate distance between transport users”.
Necessary measures will be taken to ensure TAP’s participation in operations to support the return of national citizens to national territory, “either through the temporary maintenance of regular flights, or through operations dedicated to that objective”.
+++ Agriculture +++
The Government will take the necessary and indispensable measures to guarantee normality in the “production, transport, distribution and supply of agricultural and livestock goods and services, and those essential to the agrifood chain”.
+++ Civil requisition +++
Any goods or services from legal persons under public or private law that may be necessary to combat the covid-19 pandemic may be requested, namely health equipment, respiratory protection masks or ventilators, which are in stock or which come to be used. produced by decision of health authorities or civil protection authorities.
+++ Inspection +++
It is the responsibility of the security forces and services and the municipal police to monitor compliance with the measures, with the possibility of non-compliance arising:
– Community awareness of the “general duty of recollection”.
– The closure of establishments and the cessation of activities.
– Participation for the crime of disobedience of those who violate the obligation of confinement and driving to their home (health authorities will communicate to the security forces and services the place of residence of citizens to whom the mandatory confinement measure is applied).
The security forces and services and the municipal police are also responsible for:
– Advice on the non-concentration of people on the public road and the dispersion of concentrations higher than five people (if they do not belong to the same household).
The parish councils are responsible for:
– Advice on the non-concentration of people on public roads.
– The recommendation to all citizens to comply with the general duty of home collection.
– Signaling with the security forces and services of the municipal police of the establishments to be closed, in order to guarantee the cessation of the activities provided for in Annex I to this decree.
Disobedience and resistance to the orders of the competent entities are sanctioned according to the law and “the respective penalties are always increased by one third, in their minimum and maximum limits”
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