Minister reminds passengers masks mandatory at stations, on transport

Portugal’s minister of infrastructure called for the use of masks, which are mandatory on public transport from Monday, recognising that in some cases it is very difficult to meet the capacity defined for this period of easing the lockdown because of Covid-19.

“It is fundamental to protect ourselves and others. Fundamentally, everyone has to wear them [masks] and we all have to be responsible to ourselves and others,” Pedro Nuno Santos said as he left a visit to the country’s infrastructure security centre, in Santa Apolónia (Lisbon).

The minister said that on some trains in the metropolitan areas of Porto and Lisbon, it was very difficult to control the capacity, justifying the difficulty in getting more trains, because the capacity of the infrastructure at peak hours is full.

The governor explained that on Monday, the first day of the plan defined by the government for the progressive reopening of services and commerce, in the small sample he saw at the security centre, which is connected to about 3,000 security cameras installed in train stations throughout the country, there are still no crowds of people and the trains are well filled to allow the safety distance recommended by the authorities.

Pedro Nuno Santos said that security forces are in several stations to alert and recommend the use of masks and added that in the coming days the pressure on public transport, and trains, in particular, may increase and security forces will enforce the law, recalling that not wearing masks implies a high fine.

The minister acknowledged that there are difficulties in increasing the supply of trains on some lines, giving as an example those of Sintra and Cascais, he explained: “these lines are very busy in normal times and with very high capacity. It is very difficult to get more trains on them, not only because we do not have them, but because the infrastructure capacity cannot (…) because the channel at peak times is full.”

“We will have to deal with this difficulty,” he added.

He, therefore, called on the responsibility of each user to avoid getting on already full trains, helping to meet the maximum capacity of the two-thirds set by the authorities for the period of the conditional reopening of part of the trade and public services that has begun today, with some new rules such as the wearing of masks obligatory in some situations.

The legislation approved by the government provides for fines of between 120 euros and 350 euros for those who do not respect the wearing of masks in public transport.

Masks or visors are also now mandatory in public services and commercial establishments.

The transition plan defined by the government will have differentiated measures for each phase, the first starting on Monday, followed by 18 and 31 May and 1 June.

The latest official data showed 1,043 deaths related to Covid-19 in Portugal and 25,282 infected.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused more than 245,000 deaths and infected over 3.4 million people worldwide.