President Marcelo will be addressing the country tonight on the 8pm news to lay out the terms of Portugal’s renewed State of Emergency.
With MPs voting on the decree in parliament this afternoon, it is understood to be introducing some key new government powers.
These include the ‘prohibition of face-to-face teaching, the requirement for online distance-learning, and the changes to the school calendar’ intended to apply to both the public and private sector.
The new State of Emergency will allow for the re-hiring of retired health professionals to help in the nation’s hospitals, the contracting of doctors from abroad, as well as the possibility of closing Portugal’s frontiers.
It will also define authorities powers to issue on-the-spot fines for people discovered breaking any of the ‘rules’ of confinement.
Say reports, President Marcelo is expected to outline the parlous state of the country; the galloping contagion powered by variants and the hospitals at various stages of rupture.
The new decree will apply from midnight on Sunday to February 14.
