Year: 2020

The President of the Republic today asked the Portuguese to make a collective effort this month to contain the “unsettling rise” of hospitalizations of patients with covid-19 to avoid “an aggravated December”, with ” more drastic restrictions “.

In a communication to the country, from the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced that he had just signed the decree declaring the state of emergency in Portugal from next Monday, for 15 days, until 23 November, and considered this month to be an “essential test”.

In his speech, which lasted about five minutes, the head of state argued that it is necessary, together, to “mitigate the cost of the pandemic” to protect all patients, “covid and non-covid”, and their “legitimate rights to life and health “.

The President of the Republic warned that this is “a challenge that does not end this November, nor in December, nor most likely in the first months of 2021, but that in November, this month, again, it is an essential test”.

“The weeks that follow have to be a collective effort to contain the unsettling rise in the numbers of inpatients in general and inpatients in intensive care in particular, in order to avoid all of an aggravated December and with that, more drastic restrictions for all of us undesirable, “he said.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reinforced this message, adding: “November is, therefore, another test of our restraint, our serenity, our resistance, that we will live in solidarity and determined – just as in solidarity and determined we live in the spring the start of the pandemic and in the summer the most acute situation in Greater Lisbon “.

“The President of the Republic counts with each and every one of the Portuguese in this increased effort. The Portuguese count on the President of the Republic, who is with them in this second state of emergency as he was in the first, in this November test as he has been in everyone else, now and always “, he concluded.

The parliament today authorized the President of the Republic to declare a state of emergency in Portugal as of Monday 9th November to allow measures to contain the covid-19, with votes in favour of PS, PSD and CDS-PP.

Non-registered deputy Cristina Rodrigues also voted in favour of the state of emergency, which will run from 9 to 23 November. Bloco de Esquerda, PAN, Chega abstained, while PCP, PEV, Liberal Initiative and non-registered deputy Joacine Katar Moreira voted against.

This was the fourth vote in the Assembly of the Republic on the state of emergency, which cannot last longer than 15 days, without prejudice to possible renewals, and which has been in force in Portugal for three consecutive periods during the current covid-19 pandemic.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

“The pandemic that we are going through has challenged us legally, as the laws in force were not designed for a phenomenon of this nature. It is therefore understandable that the Government has experienced difficulties and faced criticism for the use of diplomas such as the Basic Law for Civil Protection to restrict rights, freedoms and guarantees through Resolutions of the Council of Ministers.

A calamity is certainly a phenomenon that is very limited in time, hence the aforementioned law authorizes the Government to act in terms that I never considered admissible in a pandemic situation, a situation that is global and of unlimited duration.

I have maintained that the Assembly of the Republic could not be removed, as it was, in terms of restricting rights, freedoms and guarantees. If I understand the difficulty of the present moment, the urgency of legal comfort for the correct performance of the Government, for this very reason, I believe that the Executive would have done well, and will do well if he does so quickly, if he had presented a law proposal to the Assembly of the Republic that would serve as legislative authorization for its performance in pandemic times. We would not be innovative, since it was done in France, with the “health emergency law”, in the United Kingdom, with the “Coronavirus Act 2020” or in Italy, countries where Parliament has not lost its centrality in the matter, that here, too, would be of enormous importance,

Reading the Decree of the President of the Republic, we quickly realized the inadequacy of the figure of the Declaration of State of Emergency to the times we live in. There is no reason to resort to a constitutional state of exception that exists to suspend certain rights, freedoms and guarantees. So much so, that there are no suspended rights.

The Presidential Decree is limited to authorizing the Government and the competent authorities to “limit, restrict or partially condition the exercise” various rights (personal freedom, freedom of movement, economic freedom, workers’ rights, right to personality development). It is said to have a preventive character, which has no constitutional purpose.

I understand that we are facing a constitutional misuse of power. The President of the Republic makes use of a constitutional institute that has a limited function to assign it another one, precisely that which would be up to Parliament, that of restricting or authorizing the restriction of rights, freedoms and guarantees.

 

All of this is only tolerable due to the immateriality of the present State of emergency, on condition, as far as I am concerned, that a legal framework that enables the Government to act in pandemic times be quickly approved in Parliament, or we will fall into the absurdity of renewing with banality, every fifteen days, an institute decreed and executed by Democrats, but which tomorrow will be the desired precedent for who knows who.

In short, there is nothing to justify that Parliament is not the protagonist of the extent to which certain rights, freedoms and guarantees can and should be restricted, the responsibility for political action is, then, of course, of the Government, and only of the Government, which is accountable to Parliament, unlike the President of the Republic.

 

The new state of emergency proposed by the President of the Republic does not allow compulsory confinement, unlike the previous ones.

The draft state of emergency decree that followed today to the Assembly of the Republic, where it will be voted on Friday at 16:00, declares the state of emergency in Portugal between 9 and 23 November, based on the verification of a situation public calamity, to allow measures to contain covid-19.

According to this diploma, the state of emergency is again declared throughout the national territory, but with an exception for restrictions on circulation on public roads, which can be applied only “in the municipalities with the highest level of risk” of contagion with the new coronavirus and “during certain periods of the day or certain days of the week”.

Unlike the previous three presidential decrees of 19 March, 2 April and 17 April, in this diploma there is no mention of the possibility of “compulsory confinement at home, in a health establishment or in another place defined by the competent authorities”, nor to the “establishment of sanitary fences”.

There is also no suspension of the exercise of the rights of international movement, of assembly and of demonstration, of freedom of worship in its collective dimension, of the right of resistance, nor of the right to strike, as there was in the 45 days of state of emergency between 19 March and May 2nd.

Nor are the rights to learn and teach and the right to the protection of personal data limited, as happened in the two renewals of the state of emergency, to frame distance learning and allow public authorities to send written warnings about combat to covid-19.

“The prohibition on journeys on public roads that are not justified” is repeated, now under the partial suspension of the exercise of “rights to freedom and displacement”, a wording more comprehensive than the “right to travel” used in others three decrees.

At this point, trips to perform professional activities, obtain health care, assistance to third parties, production, supply of goods and services are again safeguarded – and this time trips to school establishments are added.

Once again, it will be up to the Government to specify all “situations and purposes in which the freedom of individual movement, preferably unaccompanied, remains”.

With regard to the private sector, the previous decrees allowed that the competent public authorities were “required to provide any services and use movable and immovable property, health care units, commercial and industrial establishments, companies and other productive units “.

Now, the President of the Republic proposes that the resources, means and establishments of health care provision integrated in the private, social and cooperative sectors can be used by the competent public authorities, preferably by agreement, with fair compensation, depending on what is necessary. to ensure the treatment of patients with covid-19 or the maintenance of care activity in relation to other pathologies “.

The right to property remains intact and there are no restrictions or impositions in terms of opening, operating and operating companies, services, establishments and means of production, as previously noted.

The diploma to be voted on Wednesday includes, like the previous ones, limitations to workers ‘rights, but to a much lesser extent, without interfering with the rights of workers’ commissions and union associations or the right to strike.

It is only foreseen that they can “be mobilized, by the competent public authorities, any collaborators from public, private entities, from the social or cooperative sector, regardless of the respective type of bond or functional content and even if they are not health professionals”.

This mobilization may include “public servants in prophylactic isolation or covered by the exceptional regime for the protection of immunocompromised and chronically ill patients, to support health authorities and services, namely in conducting epidemiological surveys, tracking contacts and following people under surveillance. active “.

“It is the responsibility of the Armed and Security Forces to support health authorities and services, namely in conducting epidemiological inquiries, tracking contacts and following people under active surveillance”, reads the draft decree.

In previous periods of state of emergency, it was also foreseen that the authorities could determine “that any collaborators from public, private or social sector entities, regardless of the type of link, present themselves to the service and, if necessary, start to perform functions in different place, in a different entity and in different working conditions and times than those that correspond to the existing bond “.

However, at that time it was intended to mobilize “workers in the sectors of health, civil protection, security and defense and other activities necessary to treat patients, support vulnerable populations, elderly people, people with disabilities, children and young people at risk. , in residential structures, home or street support, preventing and combating the spread of the epidemic, the production, distribution and supply of essential goods and services, the functioning of vital sectors of the economy, the operation of critical networks and infrastructures and the maintenance of public order “.

All previous decrees contained articles to note that the state of emergency did not, under any circumstances, affect the rights to life, personal integrity, personal identity, civil capacity and citizenship, non-retroactivity of criminal law, defense defendants and freedom of conscience and religion – as stated in the legal regime of the state of emergency. Freedom of expression and information were also guaranteed in the three decrees.

This time, the draft decree of the President of the Republic is silent on the rights that are not affected by the state of emergency.

According to the Constitution, the state of emergency allows the suspension of the exercise of some of the rights, freedoms and guarantees, which must be specified in the respective declaration, and cannot last longer than 15 days, without prejudice to any renewals with the same limit. temporal.

The President of the Republic must listen to the Government and be authorized by the Assembly of the Republic to declare a state of emergency, in all or in part of the national territory, in situations of public calamity.

In Portugal, where the first cases of infection with the new coronavirus were detected on March 2, 2,740 people have already died from this disease, in a total of more than 160,000 cases of infection accounted for, according to the Directorate-General for Health (DGS).

A national network of back-up support structures will be created as part of measures to combat the Covid-19 disease pandemic, and taking into account the progressive increase in cases of infection and the number of outbreaks in homes for the elderly.

The order that operationalizes this network, signed by the Minister of Internal Administration, the Minister for Labor, Solidarity and Social Security and the Minister for Health, is already published in Diário da República .

The national network of back-up support structures, supplementary to the network already constituted by the municipalities, will guarantee support to people infected with the new coronavirus, without the need for hospitalization, and to home users for elderly people who need specific support outside respective facilities.

The District Civil Protection Commissions are responsible for identifying and proposing, for each of the districts of the continental territory, the infrastructures capable of accommodating the back support structures, with the Secretaries of State coordinating the execution, at the Government level, of the situations of alert, contingency or calamity, decide its installation.

The back support structures must comply with the technical criteria defined by the Directorate-General for Health and the Social Security Institute.

 

The Social Security Institute will guarantee technical coordination, ensure the allocation of direct action assistants and general service assistants, as well as the distribution and maintenance of personal protective equipment to auxiliary personnel.

Each Regional Health Administration, in liaison with the hospital in the reference area, will provide the medical and nursing staff necessary to monitor the installed people, ensure the distribution and maintenance of equipment, as well as PPE to the installed people and medical personnel. and nursing. It will also contract the hospital waste collection service.

In the area of ​​implementation of each rear support structures, the respective municipal civil protection service provides the necessary support, within the scope of its competences. User admissions must be validated by the specialized Covid-19 District Civil Protection Subcommittee or, failing that, by the District Commission.

 

The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority monitors the activity of the rear support structures, their occupation and any constraints that may occur.

PRIME MINISTER SPEAKS TO THE NATIONAL AFTER THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS METTING

The Extraordinary Council of Ministers, which began at 10 this Saturday morning in the Palácio da Ajuda, ended eight hours later. Prime Minister António Costa then spoke to the country and announced the measures agreed upon to halt the advance of the covid-19 pandemic.

At the end of the extraordinary Council of Ministers, António Costa recalled the beginning of the pandemic in Portugal and stressed that “the deconfinement has allowed the economy to evolve” after several months of decline.

Now, according to the Prime Minister, the challenge is to “contain the pandemic without paying again the brutal personal, economic, social and family cost” that the initial measures have brought.

António Costa stated, in front of the journalists, that from 9th of November the government will put rapid testing into action.

The Prime Minister also stressed the importance of the Stayaway Covid application, at a time when 2.4 million people have already downloaded it onto their mobile phones.

“We need to free up health professionals who are doing this work” to do it ourselves “with a simple click”, he urged.

“We are strengthening the National Health Service’s response capacity,” assured the leader of the Executive, adding that back-up spaces and retired nurses are being reactivated to contact trace. “We decided today to do this”, said the Prime Minister.

“We are also developing a reinforcement of 202 new ICU beds by the first quarter of next year”, he announced, adding that the “exceptional hiring of nurses for ICUs” will be another of the Government’s measures in this regard (365 vacancies). A call for applications will be launched in January for a further 46 intensivists (ICU professionals), in addition to the ones already underway. “Because it is not enough to have beds, ventilators, negative pressure rooms, it is essential to have human resources. That implies this effort we are making,” he says.

“We believe it is essential to strengthen measures to combat this pandemic,” said the Prime Minister, adding that from the outset the Government’s maxim was to adopt “measures that are as effective as possible in controlling the pandemic, but that generate as little disruption as possible in the lives of individuals, society in general and our economy.

António Costa once again called on the population to collaborate in this fight, despite understanding the “fatigue” in relation to the measures that have been taken. The PM stressed that the fatigue of health professionals and those in the front line has also been difficult to overcome, so more needs to be done to fight Covid-19.

The first measure is self-responsibility.

If the first major measure is self-responsibility, the restrictions still need to be extended, says the Prime Minister, who recalls the measures taken a week ago at a regional level.

The government has adopted the European Centre for Disease Control’s criterion that in situations where there are at least 240 cases per 100,000 people in the previous 14 days, there will be tighter pandemic control measures. “This is a criterion which applies to several municipalities in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto”, he says, which has already applied to the three municipalities that have been confined.

Situations where a municipality is above that criterion as a result of a confined outbreak of, for example, a nursing home, will be excluded. This is the case of Alvaiázere, the Prime Minister specifies. Conversely, there may be municipalities that are not above 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but are “islands” in all the municipalities around them. “This is the case of Moita, Montijo, Barreiro and Alcochete, which were below 240, the case of Sobral de Monte Agraço or Viana do Castelo”, says António Costa, citing other examples.

Every 15 days, the Council of Ministers will revisit the list, hoping to remove some and potentially add others. “It is important not to create false expectations. November will be a very tough month”.

The rules that will apply from 4 November in the 121 municipalities that have been flagged are:

This is what is determined:

• the duty to remain at home, with citizens being required to refrain from circulating in public spaces and streets, as well as in private spaces and streets assimilated to public roads, except for all journeys previously authorised, to which are added journeys for activities carried out in day centres, to visit users in residential structures for the elderly and for people with disabilities, integrated continuous care units of the National Network of Integrated Care or other responses dedicated to elderly people, as well as trips to post offices, bank branches and insurance or insurance brokers’ agencies and trips necessary to leave continental national territory;
• it is determined, as a rule, that all retail and service establishments, as well as those in commercial complexes, close by 22h00;
• it is now provided that the mayor of the municipality with territorial jurisdiction may set a closing time lower than the ceiling, subject to the assent of the local health authority and the security forces;
• it is stipulated that celebrations and other events involving a crowd of more than five people are prohibited, unless they belong to the same household, and that fairs and markets are prohibited, with religious ceremonies and shows being permitted in accordance with the rules of the Directorate-General for Health;
• it is stipulated that the teleworking regime must be adopted, regardless of the employment situation, whenever the duties in question allow it, unless the worker is prevented from doing so;
• Closing time for restaurants 22.30 hrs
• it is determined that the exceptional and transitory regime of work reorganisation (contained in DL 79-A/2020) is applicable to companies with workplaces with 50 or more workers, in the territorial areas of the municipalities identified in annex II of the RCM (currently this regime was applicable to the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto).

Besides the exceptional measures described above, the number of people in each group in restaurants is limited to six, for the whole national territory, unless they belong to the same family.

In the remaining continental national territory, the regime of the calamity situation that was defined continues to apply.

 

 

The municipalities with a high risk of transmission of Covid-19, to which the new measures to combat the pandemic will apply:

• Alcácer do Sal,
• Alcochete,
• Alenquer,
• Alfândega da Fé,
• Alijó,
• Almada,
• Amadora,
• Amarante,
• Amares,
• Arouca,
• Arruda dos Vinhos,
• Aveiro,
• Azambuja,
• Baião,
• Barcelos,
• Barreiro,
• Batalha,
• Beja,
• Belmonte,
• Benavente,
• Borba,
• Braga,
• Bragança,
• Cabeceiras de Basto,
• Cadaval,
• Caminha,
• Cartaxo,
• Cascais,
• Castelo Branco,
• Castelo de Paiva,
• Celorico de Basto,
• Chamusca,
• Chaves,
• Cinfães,
• Constância,
• Covilhã,
• Espinho,
• Esposende,
• Estremoz,
• Fafe,
• Figueira da Foz,
• Fornos de Algodres,
• Fundão,
• Gondomar,
• Guarda,
• Guimarães,
• Idanha-a-Nova,
• Lisboa,
• Loures,
• Macedo de Cavaleiros,
• Mafra,
• Maia,
• Marco de Canaveses,
• Matosinhos,
• Mesão Frio,
• Mogadouro,
• Moimenta da Beira,
• Moita,
• Mondim de Basto,
• Montijo,
• Murça,
• Odivelas,
• Oeiras,
• Oliveira de Azeméis,
• Oliveira de Frades,
• Ovar,
• Palmela,
• Paredes de Coura,
• Paredes,
• Penacova,
• Penafiel,
• Peso da Régua,
• Pinhel,
• Ponte de Lima,
• Porto,
• Póvoa de Varzim,
• Póvoa do Lanhoso,
• Redondo,
• Ribeira da Pena,
• Rio Maior,
• Sabrosa,
• Santa Comba Dão,
• Santa Maria da Feira,
• Santa Marta de Penaguião,
• Santarém,
• Santo Tirso,
• São Brás de Alportel,
• São João da Madeira,
• São João da Pesqueira,
• Sardoal,
• Seixal,
• Sesimbra,
• Setúbal,
• Sever do Vouga,
• Sines,
• Sintra,
• Sobral de Monte Agraço,
• Tabuaço,
• Tondela,
• Trancoso,
• Trofa,
• Vale da Cambra,
• Valença,
• Valongo,
• Viana do Alentejo,
• Viana do Castelo,
• Vila do Conde,
• Vila Flor,
• Vila Franca de Xira,
• Vila Nova de Cerveira,
• Vila Nova de Famalicão,
• Vila Nova de Gaia,
• Vila Pouca de Aguiar,
• Vila Real,
• Vila Velha de Ródão,
• Vila Verde,
• Vila Viçosa,
• Vizela

Lisbon, 31 Oct 2020 (Lusa) – The Council of Ministers meets today to decree “immediate actions” to control the pandemic, one day after the Prime Minister received the parties with parliamentary seats with a view to reaching a consensus on these decisions.

In view of the worsening situation at the national level, the Prime Minister met Friday with parties with parliamentary seats, while the Minister of Economy received social partners on possible containment measures.

“We did not exclude any possible measure at the outset, but we understand that we must adopt measures that disturb personal, social and economic life as little as possible. We must take into account a second element that I have tried to convey: We are facing a long-distance race and, therefore, we cannot spend all the effort or all the measures in the first moments “, António Costa said on Thursday.

The extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, which starts at 10:00 am, in the Palácio da Ajuda, takes place one day after the country has surpassed the records since the beginning of the pandemic covid-19 with the registration of 40 dead, 4,656 infected and 1,927 inpatients, 275 of whom are in intensive care, according to the Directorate-General for Health.

On the table for discussion will be several possibilities, including the mandatory withdrawal and the extension of restrictions imposed in Paços de Ferreira, Felgueiras and Lousada to more municipalities, as stated on Friday, the Minister of Economy, Siza Vieira, who refused general confinement.

According to the PAN, the Government is considering decreeing a general confinement, but only in the first half of December, to preserve the Christmas period. However, the leader of the PAN André Silva said that this measure was not presented as being certain and stressed that it requires a state of emergency.

According to the leader of the Liberal Initiative, Cotrim Figueiredo, the Government admitted at the hearing on Friday the possibility of being imposed the curfew in counties where the incidence rate reaches 240 per hundred thousand inhabitants.

Through the PSD, Rui Rio warned that the current situation is “even more serious” than that seen in March and said that the country will not experience general confinement because the country’s economy does not allow it. The PSD, he said, will always be “on the side of the solution”, if the Government proposes a new state of emergency.

BE coordinator Catarina Martins, for the time being, has ruled out the need for a new state of emergency, arguing that the Government should use all the installed capacity in health, if necessary using the civil requisition of the private and social sectors.

The PCP, through the voice of the secretary general, Jerónimo de Sousa, pointed out that the executive led by António Costa must take “proportional” and “pedagogical” measures, warning that a health problem “cannot be transformed into a police case” .

Among the parties received by the prime minister on Friday, the ENP defended that it will be against any measure that violates citizens’ rights, freedoms and guarantees and, on the possibility of a new state of emergency being declared, he warned that “it is necessary more pedagogy, more campaign and more effort “in terms of quality of life for the Portuguese.

For Chega, a party that handed over to the Administrative Court of the Lisbon Circle a “subpoena for the defense of rights, freedoms and guarantees” against the ban on movement between municipalities in the national territory, (which runs from today until 06:00 am) November 3), André Ventura criticized the possibility of applying the rules already in force in Paços de Ferreira, Lousada and Felgueiras throughout the national territory, considering that this would be “an injustice”.

Regarding the possibility of a new general confinement in the first half of December, André Ventura considered that “it is not justified and it may even be counterproductive”.

The state of emergency was decreed, for 15 days, from March 19 to April 2, 2020 and was renewed twice, effective until May 2.

Portugal has been in a calamity situation since the 14th of October throughout the national territory.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.

We remind everyone that the above comes into effect at midnight tonight 29th/30th. To help we have compiled the attached poster showing the main provisions.

VISITORS/TOURISTS

We have received in the last few days around 300 questions/comments concerning the movement of non-residents (mainly tourists/visitors). Some clarification is needed. In order to ensure the most accurate answers we have put the main three to the GNR for an official response. This is as follows:

“1.Eles podem viajar entre acomodação em hotel ou ficar, digamos, em AL se a mudança de acomodação for durante esse período em um município diferente?

É possível, desde que a deslocação seja comprovada – alínea l) nº 16 RCM 89-A/2020.

2.Eles podem realizar atividades turísticas normais, ou seja, visitar diferentes municípios para passeios turísticos?

Apenas são admitidas deslocações, entre concelhos limítrofes ou dentro da mesma Área Metropolitana, para assistir a espetáculos culturais, devendo nestes casos estarem munidos do respetivo bilhete – alínea m) N.º 16 RCM 89-A/2020.

3.Uma pessoa pode ir ao aeroporto buscar um membro da família que está hospedado com ela ou devolvê-lo ao aeroporto se este for em um município diferente

Não pode. Neste caso deve recorrer a transportes públicos (Expresso, Taxi, TVDE – estes deslocam-se no âmbito de uma atividade profissional). Contudo, de acordo com o N.º 15 e 18 da RCM 89-A/2020, sendo um caso urgente ou sem alternativa de transporte, admite-se a realização do referido deslocamento.”

TRANSLATION

Please see the above including English translation here

1.Can they travel between hotel accommodation or stay in, say, AL (local lodging) if the change of accommodation is during that time in a different municipality?

Reply: It is possible, as long as the displacement is proven – point l) nº 16 RCM 89-A / 2020.

2.Can they carry out normal tourist activities, that is, visit different municipalities for sightseeing?

Trips or only allowed, between neighbouring municipalities or within the same Metropolitan Area, to attend cultural shows, in which case they must be provided with the respective ticket – item m) No. 16 RCM 89-A / 2020.

3. Can a person go to the airport to pick up a family member who is staying with him or return him to the airport if he is in a different municipality (to the airport)?

Cannot. In this case, you must use public transport (Expresso, Taxi, TVDE – they travel within the scope of a professional activity). However, in accordance with No. 15 and 18 of RCM 89-A / 2020, being an urgent case or with no transportation alternative, the referred trip is allowed.

THIS has taken our volunteer a great deal of work. To save us a great deal more we appreciate if you would refrain from personal opinion or comments so it is easier for others to seek any clarification that is necessary as it affects you. Thank you

 

The president of the District Civil Protection Commission of Porto today presented a proposal to the Government that, due to the increasing number of cases of covid-19 in the region, a curfew should be introduce in the district .

Speaking to the Lusa agency, Marco Martins, who is also mayor of Gondomar, said he had spoken with most of the mayors in the district and that everyone agreed that “more serious measures are needed, but measures that balance public health and the economy”.

“We cannot, of course, return to confinement, we must have balance”, he defended.

The information made available by health authorities states that “most contagions occur at family parties or social gatherings”, he recalled.

Thus, considered Marco Martins, “the most sensible and prudent way will be the curfew at night, similar to what is already being done in many places in Europe in the last two weeks”.

“What we think, in contact with the mayors of Felgueiras, Lousada and Paços de Ferreira, is that the measures have no logic to be applied only to one, two or three municipalities, because what happens is that people leave these municipalities and go have dinner at the restaurant or have fun at the establishments in the county next door”, he stressed.

Therefore, he argues that “it is necessary to apply the measures to a wider area, a district or a region”.

“We have to stop this situation,” he said.

We start the day with bad news but it is important people are aware.

Yesterday the Minister of health announced that according to projections by 4^th November the number of those in hospital from Covid 10 will reach 2634 and those in intensive care 444. Currently they are 1672 and 240 respectively.

Also by 28^th October the number of those in hospitalised in intensive care will exceed the highest since the start of the pandemic which was 271.

These calculations and estimates were put forward by the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, in a statement this Monday, taking into account the growing trend of new cases and hospitalizations in recent days.

These estimates are “according to estimates and calculations made by the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Health and the Instituto Superior Técnico”.

This will be “a highly complex scenario “, acknowledged Marta Temido, admitting that more municipalities may be the target of restrictive measures such as those applied in Lousada, Felgueiras and Paços de Ferreira.

Meanwhile he Director-General of Health, Graça Freitas, said this Monday that Portugal has an accumulated notification rate of 14 days greater than or equal to 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The minister of Health Marta Temido explained that government is considering that non-covid-19 patients who see appointments, tests or surgeries at the National Health Service (SNS) to be cancelled due to the worsening of the pandemic and referred to the private and social sectors.

In a press conference at the Ministry of Health, in Lisbon, the minister emphasized that the recovery of the assistance activity for patients with other pathologies had “only a difference of 600,000 consultations between urgent and non-urgent in primary health care until September compared to the same period last year, in a volume of 31 million”, but acknowledged that the exponential increase in cases may again condition the SNS response.