Home » World » Portugal is again introducing massive exit restrictions in the Greater Lisbon area

Portugal is again introducing massive exit restrictions in the Greater Lisbon area


Picture: NIAID / CC-2.0

The question is whether the country has loosened the measures against the pandemic too quickly and whether the renewed outbreak has a fatal impact on tourism

Due to a significant increase in corona infections, large areas of the greater Portuguese capital Lisbon will again be subject to considerable exit restrictions for two weeks from July 1. The Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said on Thursday. The Portuguese press speaks of one “Lockdown”, because the residents of the 19 affected communities around the capital are only allowed to leave the house for shopping, doctor visits or work.

Coronavirus","Lockdown","Portugal","zweite Welle"],"mpos":["understitial","top"],"themenhub":"yes"}" type="gpt" unit="/6514/www.heise.de/tp/tp-politik" width="300"/>

During these 14 days, meetings of a maximum of five people are permitted in the 19 municipalities. This also includes large parts of Sintra, where almost 300,000 people affect almost 80% of all residents, plus the entire Amadora district with almost 200,000 inhabitants and Odivelas with 150,000 residents. But the capital itself is also marginally affected with Santa Clara. However, the entire capital had previously been subject to new restrictions. Meetings of more than ten people have been banned in the center since Tuesday, and 20 in the rest of the country. Cafes and shops have to close again at 8 p.m. and then petrol stations are no longer allowed to sell alcohol. The only exceptions in the center of Lisbon are restaurants where you can eat until late in the evening.

tv/page/87311/tag"/>

Between May 21 and June 21, more than 9,000 new coronavirus infections were registered in Portugal, most of them in the Lisbon area. So the situation has reversed. In March, Porto was still the center of the pandemic. However, on Thursday there were 311 new infections across the country, 77% of them in the Lisbon region. Costa continues to be in a “predictable, manageable and controllable” position. However, both the occupancy of the hospitals and the number of deaths confirm “that the situation is stable,” added the head of the socialist government. It should be noted here that, as the conservative President Rebelo de Sousa points out, a particularly large number of tests are carried out, which is why many infections are also discovered.

It has repeatedly said that the relaxation of the measures and the associated increased mobility could lead to an increased risk of infection, noticed Costa on. “That is why we have always said that we have to keep a very close eye on developments in the situation to see whether this increased risk of infection becomes something that cannot be controlled or whether it remains within an acceptable framework.”

For Costa, the “only effective way” to control the new outbreak is to keep people at home for as long as possible. Overall, the rules for social distance as well as all protection and hygiene standards should be observed, he said. However, Costa does not resort to a real lockdown – to reduce all operations to the basic services in the affected areas – so as not to damage the economy particularly badly. Unlike Spain or Italy, Portugal was able to do without this throughout the crisis. However, this is now associated with the risk that the virus will spread to jobs across Lisbon, where the majority of people who live in the 19 affected communities go to work.

But he does not resort to the real lockdown either, because there are said to have been mainly infections at illegal parties and gatherings. One problem is that the new restrictions in the area around the capital did not come into force immediately, but will only come into force next Wednesday. Some of the many people from the affected areas could now think of saying goodbye to vacation in other parts of the country in summer to avoid being included. Spain had made the mistake, which allowed the virus to spread from the infection center of Madrid across the country in March.

Costa hopes, however, that the Portuguese will once again be insightful. They acted early in March, even before the government called the alarm, and often stopped sending their children to school. Social contacts were quickly reduced significantly on the people’s own initiative. This made a significant contribution to the fact that Portugal has so far come through the crisis well, and the catastrophe like in neighboring Spain has therefore been canceled. So far, the country has only had a good 1,500 deaths, while in Madrid there are even officially more than 28,000. A large part, about 60% more, does not appear at all in the beautiful Spanish statistics. For example, thousands of old people, some of whom were simply left behind to die in old people’s homes, are not counted because they have never been tested.

Coronavirus","Lockdown","Portugal","zweite Welle"],"mpos":["2"],"themenhub":"yes"}" type="gpt" unit="/6514/www.heise.de/tp/tp-politik" width="300"/>

Portugal was hasty with the easing from May 3

The opening was pretty quick in various stages. From June 1st, large shops and shopping centers were again allowed to open, as well as cinemas, theaters, large museums and cultural institutions. Football games have also taken place since then. Portugal’s top division was the first of the larger European leagues to report back from the Corona break. Already from June 15th, Portugal let foreign tourists back into the country, although the borders for motorists with Spain will only be opened on July 1st.

For this reason, international tourists have been appearing in the country again clearly since last week. However, the safety precautions are rather lax, which could also come back in a few weeks with increasing numbers of infections. Holidaymakers only receive an information sheet from the government when they fly, asking them to call a hotline if they experience symptoms such as coughing, fever and shortness of breath. Not even fever is measured on arrival, as previously announced. Since this does not happen almost everywhere when you leave the country, the risk of imported infections is high.

In view of all of these processes, which are also clearly aimed in Lisbon at getting the starving economy going again, it can now be feared that Portugal is endangering its huge successes in the fight against the coronavirus by overly lax handling. For this reason alone, she is now quickly resorting to rigid measures in areas with increasing numbers of infections. In the middle of summer, if the government had to extend the exit restrictions now imposed on 19 municipalities around Lisbon to the entire capital and other areas in order to bring the virus back under control, the economic backlash would also have been started. This would mean that the holiday season, which is very important for the Portuguese economy, would have ended before it really started. One can already assume that some travelers are canceling because of the reports about the situation in Lisbon.

The number of cases is also increasing again in Spain, among other things due to imported cases

Incidentally, the problem is not limited to Portugal alone. Even in Spain Increased infections were found again in eleven regions. The regions of Huesca in Aragon and Málaga in Andalusia are particularly affected. However, 20% of all cases discovered in the past week were imported from abroad.

It is known that since the weekend, the national borders with the expired alarm state have been reopened. (https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Die-Corona-Mauer-ist-gefallen-die-Unsicherheit-bleibt-4790454.html). However, possible new infections from this source are so far hardly visible. The previously known infected people entered airports, where there is also no fever check. This is particularly contradictory, as Spain recently wanted to send all those entering quarantine.

Actually, the borders should not be opened until July 1st, which was hastily preferred. To save the holiday season, the quarantine also disappeared quietly. Even for the British, which is officially the most affected country in Europe, the Quarantine lifted, although Britain continues to provide for Spaniards.
(Ralf Streck)

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.