PM extends lockdown without additional measures

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, announced this Thursday that it will extend the current lockdown at least until March 1, adding that measures taken in the last two weeks have helped to “markedly slow down the increasing rate of new cases.”

After the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister said that the country is on a “downward trajectory but still at a level of more than 960 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days”, and because of that, in António Costa’s opinion, a further 15-day lockdown is required. However, with this new extension, no new measures have been announced.

See the lockdown measures currently in force:

• The sale or delivery of products at the front door of any establishment is now prohibited;
• All restaurants in shopping centres, even those which could operate under the takeaway regime, are closed;
• All sales campaigns, promotions and liquidations promoting the movement or concentration of people are prohibited;
• It is forbidden to stay for long periods in public outdoor spaces, such as gardens;
• Mayors are asked, as in March and April 2020, to limit access to places with a high concentration of people and to limit the use of park benches and playgrounds, and individual sports venues.
• Educational and teaching activities in public, private and cooperative educational establishments and in the social and solidarity sector are closed;
• The ban on movement between municipalities on weekends is reinstated, and all establishments of any kind must close at 8 pm on weekdays, and at 1 pm on weekends, except for the food retail, which may extend to 5 pm on weekends.
• Ban on non-essential travel outside the mainland by Portuguese citizens;
• Re-establishment of land border controls;
• Possibility of suspending flights and determining compulsory confinement of passengers on arrival;
• Possibility for health care institutions of the National Health Service (SNS) to be able, exceptionally, to contract, up to a maximum of one year, holders of academic degrees conferred by a foreign higher education institution in the area of medicine and nursing, provided that certain requirements are met.