Madeira island expects full reopening in October with 70% of residents vaccinated
Miguel Albuquerque, who heads the government of Madeira, expects the full reopening of activities on the island to take place in October 2021.
The government of Madeira expects the full reopening of activities to take place in October and has scheduled the Flower Festival for the first week of the month, one of the biggest tourist attractions of the region, the chief executive said on Monday.
“The first big event and the reopening, so to speak, of normality, will be the Flower Festival, which is intended to be held in the first week of October, after about 70% of the population has been vaccinated,” said Miguel Albuquerque.
Miguel Albuquerque, who heads the PSD/CDS-PP coalition government, reaffirmed that the health authorities plan to vaccinate 70% of the archipelago’s population, with around 260,000 inhabitants, by September.
According to the latest data, about 60,000 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have already been administered in the region, which on Sunday recorded 310 active cases of Covid-19, out of a total of 8,599 confirmed since March 2020, and 71 deaths associated with the disease.
“In the first week of October we will traditionally hold the Flower Festival and some events will be scheduled in the following months,” he said, stressing that no other major event will take place until then.
The Flower Festival usually takes place in May and is one of the biggest billboards in the region, attracting thousands of tourists and Madeirans to Funchal, but the date and its layout were changed in 2020 due to measures to contain the new coronavirus.
Miguel Albuquerque stressed that this year the executive is optimistic about the recovery and a new cycle in Madeira’s tourism.
A curfew is in force in Madeira until at least 11.59 pm on April 19, between 7 pm and 5 am of the following day during the week, and between 6 pm and 5 am on weekends and public holidays.
In the archipelago, commercial, industrial and service activities, such as catering, will close at 6 pm during the week and at 5 pm at weekends, while the hours for home-delivery of meals will run until 10 pm, every day of the week.
