Portugal’s health authorities order school closures on case-by-case basis

The National Public Health Council has recommended that state and private schools should only be closed by order of the health authorities, announced Jorge Torgal, a member of the council, after a meeting of this government advisory body.

At a joint press conference in Lisbon, after several hours of meeting, the Director General of Health, Graça Freitas, considered that this recommendation “makes sense” and that the closure of schools will be done on a case-by-case basis “analyzing the risk, case by case, situation by situation”.

“We cannot be creating disproportionate measures in advance,” said Graça Freitas, stressing that “in each region, the health administrations will analyze the concrete situation of each school.

The possibility of bringing forward the Easter school holidays by about two weeks was advocated this week by the president of the National Association of School Leaders, Manuel Pereira. A scenario also accepted by the Prime Minister, who referred the decision to the National Public Health Council.

Since Monday, some primary and secondary schools, as well as higher education establishments, have been closed.

Portuguese schools are attended by more than two million pupils: around 240,000 children are enrolled in pre-school education, almost 1.4 million in primary and secondary education and nearly 373,000 in higher education institutions.

The National Public Health Council is an advisory body to the Government and was meeting to decide on recommendations to the executive on the situation in the country regarding the new coronavirus.