PM Costa has outlined the next steps in Portugal’s return to ‘quasi-normality’.
The current State of Calamity will continue to the end of the month at which point the country as a whole will embark on a new State of ‘Contingency’.
Areas least hit by the virus – including the Algarve and Alentejo – will probably skip ‘contingency’ and go into ‘a mere State of Alert’, said Costa today, revealing that shopping malls in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo areas will be finally allowed to reopen next Monday, June 15.
The reason for ‘continuing with Calamity’ till July is that the country is headed for various national holidays and ‘periods where people get together’, and thus the messages on physical distancing, increased hygiene etc need to be kept in full force, he explained.
The PM announced these developments as in the UK, the Telegraph has (yet again) carried an article attesting to how well the crisis has been handled in Portugal, and how much the UK could learn from Portugal’s success.
Says the text headed “Clean hands and face masks: what the UK needs to learn quickly from Portugal”: “Portugal has kept its rules and its messaging simple and logical – and it is working. We should do the same here before it is too late”.
For the article in full, click here.
