The President of the Republic, Prime Minister, party representatives and social partners meet today in Lisbon with experts to analyze the epidemiological situation of covid-19, before the Government takes decisions on the second phase of deflation.

The meeting, at Infarmed, is the sixth since the beginning of the pandemic and the first after the end of the state of emergency, which took place in Portugal between March 19 and May 2, from which it was moved to a calamity situation, after the which began a gradual reopening of activities and establishments closed due to the outbreak.

With the objective of sharing information, these meetings arose at the initiative of the Prime Minister and have brought together epidemiologists and other specialists with the President of the Republic, President of the Assembly of the Republic, leaders of the parties with parliamentary representation, union and employer leaders.

After this meeting, and a lunch, in Belém, with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, António Costa receives the parties with parliamentary representation, in the official residence of São Bento.

On Friday, the Council of Ministers is expected to assess the measures of the first phase of deflation, May 4, and those of the second phase should be announced, such as the 11th and 12th grade students’ return to classes. Years of schooling or the reopening of daycare centers, on May 18, Monday. The third phase begins on June 1st.

Last week, the prime minister said that “the confinement release rules will come into force every 15 days” and that, before moving on to the next, the measures will be evaluated.

The Government’s objective, with this phased reopening calendar, “is to measure the impacts of the previous measure every 15 days, seeing if it is possible or not to take another step,” he explained.

At the last meeting, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, took advantage of the end of the meeting to announce that the state of emergency would end on May 2, but warned that this “is not the end of the outbreak” of covid-19, rejecting ” any facilitism “in this new phase in which” the small steps “will be assessed constantly.