As the country holds its breath waiting to hear if it is included in the British government’s list of ‘air bridges’, a petition has started to press Portugal’s case.
Says the text that is rapidly being shared over social media, the uncertainty “stinks of double standards”.
“The World Health Organisation classes Portugal as very good in dealing with Covid and the UK as poor”.
Spain, France and Italy “have had larger deaths per million than Portugal but they appear to be getting an air bridge” whereas Portugal, “for one small spike (and a good testing regime)”, may not qualify.
Countries like Italy and Spain are not testing as much as Portugal, the text continues – suggesting both countries have more cases than they’re letting on.
“Do we reward for transparency and effective action and support the Portuguese economy” or should the country be punished by being left out of the air-bridge listing on what appears to be unrepresentative data?
As has been constantly pointed out, the ‘holiday areas’ of Algarve and Madeira are all ‘Covid-light’, registering an exceptionally low number of cases and consequently very few deaths. Indeed, Madeira hasn’t recorded even one death.
The British government’s policy is designed to categorise countries according to their own data on the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
If Portugal is left out of the ‘air bridge’ network it will mean any Brit coming here on holiday this summer will have to return home to 14-days quarantine – something very few could afford, let alone willingly sign up for.
Tourism chiefs and politicians are also doing their bit to press Portugal’s case, with interior minister Eduardo Cabrita saying yesterday that the notion the country is less safe than UK is quite patently ridiculous.
So for now, as the decision-making process has been endlessly delayed, requests are for everyone who can to sign this petition (click here).
