PM admits entry restrictions for travelers from Brazil if EU decides

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has said that the country could veto the entry of citizens from Brazil if that is the determination of the EU’s Disease Prevention Agency in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As soon as there are signs from the European Agency for Disease Prevention, we will comply with the rules. So far, we have kept flights to and from Brazil. The frequency has been low and 11 out of 8,767 people who came from Brazil have been reported infected,” Costa said on Monday at a meeting with foreign journalists in Lisbon, quoted by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo.

“This is not the decision of any government. [The list of barred countries] will be set by the European Agency for Disease Prevention according to the epidemiological situation in each country. It will examine whether Europe will open the border to people from those countries. We are waiting for the agency to set the criteria,” he said.

Costa’s statements on Monday were made on the day that part of Europe began to reopen its internal borders. The list of nations that will have EU entry vetoed has not yet been released, but it will be based on the country’s epidemiological situation regarding the new coronavirus.

Brazil has a total of 43,332 deaths and 867,624 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, which reached the South American country at the end of February.

The Brazilian government has prohibited the entry of foreigners in Brazil for 30 days, until June 22.