Madeira to keep curfew even if it is revoked at national level

Madeira will maintain its state of calamity and curfew even if the government on the mainland decides otherwise after the Infarmed meeting scheduled for Tuesday, the president of the regional government insisted on Monday.

“I am not ending any curfew. We are in a state of calamity and we will keep the schedules because we are in the middle of a pandemic,” said Miguel Albuquerque confronted with the possibility of a decision being taken to end this measure at a national level after the Infarmed meeting.

The Madeiran governor argued that, given the regional epidemiological situation, it is necessary to “keep the curfew [between 01:00 and 05:00], the closure of establishments at the time that is determined [00:00] and avoid gatherings and the stupidities that have happened recently”.

The aim is for Madeira “not to have more cases”, he said, mentioning that the region currently has “five people hospitalised in Funchal, “none in intensive care and “hospital capacity is fully safeguarded”.

“Transmission chains are being monitored,” he said and mentioned that, “at the moment, there are two identified in Porto Santo”.

According to the island’s chief executive, seven cases have been reported on the island, which has a large influx of visitors in the summer, and “32 people have already been identified”.

“The businessmen [of Porto Santo], with the exception of one – who has already been fined – have behaved very well. But then there are gatherings on the beach by young people,” he said.

Miguel Albuquerque argued that it was necessary to “control the situation so that the pandemic does not spread” on that island that already has “83% of the population vaccinated”, which could jeopardise the safety of that territory.

He also pointed out that currently, more than 70 people are in isolation in the region (23 in Porto Santo and 53 in Madeira), cases that were “imported and detected at airports”.

On the issue of security with the Madeira Rally taking place next weekend, he considered that “things will go well,” provided that people keep their distance in the most crowded special stages around the island.

“Right now, the recovery is happening at a very fast pace, with over 30,000 tourists from the English market entering the region in one week”.

Miguel Albuquerque also said that, as of August 2, the German market, one of the main sources of tourism to Madeira, should reopen.

Therefore, “that tourism recovery is underway. We are diversifying the markets, but it is not fully recovered and we are still in the middle of the pandemic,” he stressed, emphasising the continued “fundamental” support to companies, “especially those most affected by the pandemic,” such as those linked to the tourism sector.

The regional government has already granted support to the business sector affected by the pandemic to the value of 185 million euros.

According to the latest data released on Sunday by the Regional Health Directorate, Madeira registered 44 new cases and one more death, bringing the number of fatalities to 74 and active cases to 253.