The President of the Republic scheduled for tonight, at 8 pm, a declaration to the country following its third decree of state of emergency. He began the intervention by saying: “I hope this is the last state of emergency”.

After, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa explained the three reasons for having once again declared a state of emergency. “Our task in nursing homes has not wasted a minute but it needs some more time,” he said.

The President then went on to say that Portugal “is the third country in Europe that tests the most” and even that did not increase the numbers of infected people. “But we must continue to stabilize the daily number of hospitalizations, in order to ensure that our SNS will be in a position to respond” to the possible outbreak in the event of increased social contacts.

The “third and most relevant” reason has to do with the declaration of the state of emergency itself, which, according to the President, gives the Government time and space to study and prepare for the gradual opening of society and the economy after the end of April”, taking into account time, means, territory, areas and sectors.

Marcelo quoted the people – “We don’t want to die on the beach” – to say that one cannot exchange what has already been achieved for a temptation. And he ended the 12-minute statement with a sentence: “If this is a miracle, the miracle is called Portugal”.