Paulo Mumia
From Friday afternoon (4:00 p.m. CEST) to Monday morning (6:00 a.m.) the 2.8 million inhabitants of the capital of Portugal are only allowed to leave the greater Lisbon area for good reason. Foreigners are only allowed to enter in exceptional cases.
Tourists landing in Lisbon to vacation in another part of the country or visitors flying back home are not affected. But you are not allowed to visit Lisbon as a tourist on the weekend if you are staying somewhere else.
Prime Minister António Costa rejected criticism that the measure was exaggerated in view of the relatively relaxed situation. The lockdown is appropriate, he said during a visit to Bruges. “If you don’t take any action, the pandemic will pick up again.”
The authorities blame the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India, for an increase in the number of infections in recent days. With 928 new infections within 24 hours, Lisbon recorded its highest value since February 19 on Thursday. That was around 75 percent of all cases recorded in Portugal (1233). However, only around 27 percent of all 10.3 million citizens of Portugal live in the “Area Metropolitana” of Lisbon.
“It is not easy to take such measures, but we thought they were essential so that the current situation in Lisbon does not spread to the whole country,” said Presidential Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva. According to the central government, a decision should be made at short notice whether the lockdown will be repeated on the coming weekends.
The former hotspot Portugal had successfully fought against Corona in winter and temporarily had the lowest values in Europe in spring. The state of emergency to contain the pandemic therefore ended on May 1 after five and a half months. However, the nationwide 14-day incidence rose from 55 to 87 within a few weeks, according to the EU authority ECDC.
Published: 06/18/2021, 6:14 p.m.
Last updated: June 18, 2021, 7:05 pm