– Lusa.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, met this Monday with the presidents of the five municipalities in the metropolitan area of Lisbon that arouse greater concern due to the high number of new cases of covid-19 in recent weeks. New rules were defined, including the maintenance of the state of calamity in the five counties.
António Costa announced that 15 parishes were identified in the set of five municipalities with residential areas where there is a “particular incidence” of the virus, without specifying which they are.
“There are no two weights and two measures, there are two different moments and there is a completely different circumstance. The increase in cases of Covid19 is observed mainly in 15 parishes of five counties and in residential areas of some of these parishes “claimed the Prime Minister.
The meeting, which took place at the Prime Minister’s official residence, lasted 4 hours and was attended by Fernando Medina (Lisbon), Basílio Horta (Sintra), Carla Tavares (Amadora), Hugo Martins (Odivelas) and Bernardino Soares (Loures).
At the end of the meeting, and in statements to journalists, the head of the Government announced several measures to be applied in these locations, namely the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, the closure of all establishments until 8 pm with the exception of restaurants with meal services . The consumption of alcohol on public roads is also prohibited. The measures and sanctions are aimed at replacing the effects of a possible sanitary fence, without the drawbacks of this for economic activity.
In addition to restoring the maximum limit of 10 people per gathering, the Government will approve a diploma that provides for administrative offenses, with the reinforcement of security forces on the street, allowing “the assessment of whoever organizes or who participates in gatherings that are not allowed” .
Within the scope of the new measures, shopping centers will be more inspected, regarding the entry, circulation and presence of people per square meter.
PSP and GNR will also reinforce their presence on the streets and in the control of mandatory confinement.
To control the expansion of the pandemic in the 15 parishes identified in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon, the Government will develop a program called Healthy Neighborhoods, “which aims to develop community projects to strengthen prevention in the residential areas that have been most affected”.
In this context, the executive defends a stronger articulation between municipalities and health authorities, to shorten the deadlines for notification of test results to covid-19 and for the dissemination of inquiries, as well as to reinforce the surveillance visits of people in home confinement.
The announced measures will take effect as of 00:00 on Tuesday.
“In these circumstances, we are not forbidding those who are able to work to work, we are not banning commercial activity and the risks associated with the spread of the covid-19 pandemic are controlled,” said the prime minister.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, assured on Sunday that he would support what the Government decided after this meeting, in what “it is necessary to do to prevent the lack of control” of the lack of definition in the Lisbon region.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister, António Costa, guaranteed that, if it is necessary to take steps backwards from the lack of definition, he will do so, but he prefers to control the situation, considering that the best form of solidarity and recovery is for everyone to follow the rules.
At the press conference to present the epidemiological bulletin on Friday from the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), Marta Temido acknowledged “difficulties in breaking the transmission chains” in these five municipalities, which since mid-May have consistently concentrated vast majority of contagions in Portugal.
“Now that the situation inspires us the greatest concern, limited to five municipalities in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, within them distributed in a not perfectly symmetrical way, with a clear identification of the parishes where there is a greater incidence, we decided to take an initiative that is linked to the holding of a meeting next Monday morning “, stressed, then, the Minister of Health.
Marta Temido reiterated the appeal to the population to comply with the rules of social protection and distance, stressing that the fight against the covid-19 pandemic “is a marathon, not a ‘sprint'” and that “those who think they can return are sadly mistaken to their previous normal lives “without a vaccine or effective treatment.
The meeting takes place at a time when Portugal registers 1,530 deaths and 39,133 cases since the first case of contamination by the new coronavirus was reported on March 2.
In the region of Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, where the highest number of outbreaks has been recorded recently, the pandemic of covid-19 reached 16,762 confirmed cases until Sunday, 225 more than on Saturday, which corresponds to 77% of the 292 new cases contagions reported in relation to the previous day.
In the distribution of cases infected by municipalities, the municipality of Lisbon has the highest number of infections (3,135), followed by Sintra (2,253), Vila Nova de Gaia (1,611), Loures (1,623), Amadora (1,428), Porto (1,414), Matosinhos (1,292), Braga (1,256), Maia (950) and Odivelas (881).
