Anti-Covid-19 measures to continue, with or without State of Emergency

The Prime Minister, António Costa, on Monday predicted that, with or without a state of emergency and due to the “success in lowering the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic”, it will be necessary to prolong the measures that have been adopted.

Speaking to journalists at the new Covid-19 hospital support unit in Lisbon’s cidade universitária, António Costa said that the President of the Republic “will take the initiative this week to renew or not the state of emergency”, giving the government’s opinion at that time to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and then there will be “a decision by parliament”.

“I believe that, without doing any futurology, what is expected is that, knowing that we have succeeded in lowering the peak of this pandemic – that is, the moment when the largest number of people will be infected – but at the same time prolonging the pandemic’s duration, this means that we will also have to prolong the measures that have been adopted, with or without a state of emergency”.

As for the upcoming festivities, the Prime Minister made it clear that “it’s really going to have to be a different Easter” and that “people can’t go to their homelands”, nor can they go to the Algarve – and families cannot celebrate this festive season “all together”. It’s an “essential sacrifice to save us all”, António Costa stressed.

“The best way for us to be together right now is to be really separated”, he stressed.