Most Portuguese regions will enter the third phase of easing the COVID-19 lockdown next week, but tougher rules remain in place in municipalities where transmission speeds remain high, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Thursday.
“These series of measures are not prizes or penalties,” Antonio Costa told a news conference. “They are public health measures for the safety of the population, of people.”
Portugal, which imposed a lockdown in January to curb what was then the worst COVID-19 spike in the world, began lifting the restrictions last month and has since reopened some schools, restaurant and café terraces, museums and hair salons.
For the past two weeks, people have gone out to enjoy the warmer spring weather, see friends and family, and eat al fresco after more than two months at home.
Starting Monday, high schools, universities, cinemas, shopping centers and indoor areas with restaurants will reopen in the vast majority of the 278 municipalities in mainland Portugal, but under restrictions designed to reduce the risk of contamination.
Outdoor events, weddings and baptisms can also be resumed, but under capacity rules.
However, in municipalities where the limit of 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants has been reached, the rules will be different.
Seven municipalities, including the tourist town of Albufeira in the Southern Algarve, famous for its beaches and golf courses, but now almost deserted, will not advance to the third phase of lockdown relaxation.
Four municipalities, such as the largest city in the west of the Algarve, Portimao, will step back and introduce stricter lockdown rules, such as closing outdoor cafes and other non-essential businesses.
“This is really a fight against the pandemic that we have to do together,” said Costa. “The effort cannot be wasted until the vaccination process is effective.”
Portugal, a country of just over 10 million inhabitants, has suffered 829,358 cases and 16,933 deaths since the start of the pandemic. It has administered nearly 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to date.
No crisis in recent history has hit Portugal’s tourism-dependent economy so hard, with GDP shrinking by 7.6% last year, the largest annual slump since 1936.
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