Madeira extends state of calamity until September 30, shortens curfew

  • Lusa
  • 27 August 2021

The situation of calamity is the highest of three levels of intervention foreseen in the Basic Law of Civil Protection, above the levels of contingency and alert.

The government of Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal, has decided to extend the state of calamity in the archipelago until September 30, while reducing the length of the overnight curfew, which from Friday starts one hour later, at 2 a.m., and runs until 5 a.m.

The coalition government formed of the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) and conservative People’s Party (CDS-PP) also announced after a cabinet meeting on Thursday that commercial establishments such as restaurants would also be allowed to operate until 1 a.m. from Friday, rather than midnight.

At the same time, the government stressed, all health measures to control the spread of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 to remain in force, including mandatory mask use in public places and indoors, and physical distancing.

The situation of calamity is the highest of three levels of intervention foreseen in the Basic Law of Civil Protection, above the levels of contingency and alert.

A calamity may be declared when, given the occurrence with which it is associated and its foreseeable intensity, there is a recognised need to adopt exceptional measures to prevent, react or restore normal living conditions in the areas affected by its effects.

Unlike during a state of emergency – which under Portugal’s constitution can only be proposed by the country’s president and requires the approval of parliament – the right to strike and to demonstrate are not prohibited during a state of calamity. During an emergency, the armed forces are also on standby, while in the state of calamity it is civil defence forces that oversee operations.

According to the most recent data from the Regional Health Directorate, the archipelago of Madeira – which has around 251,000 residents – currently has 362 active cases of the coronavirus, with a cumulative 11,142 confirmed since the start of the pandemic and a total of 75 deaths associated with the disease.

In Portugal, since March 2020, 17,689 people have died and 1,028,421 confirmed cases of infection have been counted, according to data from the Directorate-General of Health.

Worldwide, Covid-19 has been associated with at least 4,461,431 deaths, out of more than 213.79 million infections by the new coronavirus recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the latest calculations of Agence France-Presse.

The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in countries such as the UK, India, South Africa, Brazil and Peru.