Lisbon turning some Airbnbs into homes for key workers, and fallout from UK ‘air bridge’ exclusion continues
Portuguese news in English on July 6, 2020.
By the numbers
We did a little better last week than the week before in terms of new cases (269 fewer cases), but the numbers still aren’t really falling as we would like them to. This week has started well, with the lowest number of new cases since June 14, but it’s worth noting the figure is usually a bit lower on Mondays. Hospitalisations are ticking up ever so slowly as well (513 today vs 471 on June 1), as you can see in this Público article, but luckily the number of people in intensive care remains relatively stable, roughly in the 60s or 70s. The death rate seems to be ticking up slowly again as well, with 11 fatalities on Friday.
Lisbon is turning some Airbnbs into homes for key workers
The mayor of Lisbon wants to bring the “people who are Lisbon’s lifeblood” back to the city centre, he writes in English in an opinion piece for The Independent. It’s not an entirely new idea for the Airbnb-choked city but Fernando Medina is using the coronavirus crisis as a chance to push his plan. The mayor admits Lisbon has benefited enormously from tourism but complains essential workers and their families have increasingly been forced out by holiday rentals now making up more than a third of housing in the centre. “Prioritising affordable housing for the hospital staff, transport workers, teachers and thousands of others who provide our essential services is possible,” he writes. “We’re offering to pay landlords to turn thousands of short-term lets into “safe rent” homes for key workers.” Saturday’s article was not particularly detailed but Reuters examined the idea in a lot more depth, again in English, about a week ago. Owners who rent their flats to locals for five years won’t pay tax on rental income, which will be guaranteed by the city under the €4 million deal. The locals will pay no more than a third of their net income.
The blue line is cases confirmed DAILY and the other line is the TOTAL number of deaths, hence why it keeps climbing. Click here for an interactive version.
The fallout from the UK ‘air bridge’ exclusion continues
Miguel Gouveia, the mayor of the Madeiran capital of Funchal, has joined the chorus of Portuguese begging Brits to consider a holiday here, despite the quarantine confusion, Diário de Notícias reports. He wrote to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to make “some strong arguments” in support of holidays in Madeira, where there have been only a handful of cases, describing it as “one of the safest places in the world. There was a sigh of relief from Madeira and the Azores when they were added to the list of locations exempt from Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice against “all but essential” international travel. But just like continental Portugal, they were left off the list of countries Brits could travel to without having to quarantine on their return to the UK. As far as I can tell, that’s how the situation continues but there’s still a fair bit of confusion. The impact is wide-ranging, from a tripling of unemployment in the Algarve, through to a 15% drop in wine sales in the Douro Valley, both according to Público.
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In brief
Spanish companies winning almost 70% of the public works market in Portugal. Portuguese companies complain they can’t compete on price with massive Spanish companies happy to lose money in the short-term to ensure long-term success. Público.
Not enough money to pay for special firefighters. The National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority had to ask again for more money to pay a special fire-fighting unit. (Público)
National Guard breaks up illegal party with 300 people in Setúbal. The person responsible for the event, promoted on social networks, was identified. (Público)
On a lighter note
Luís the nurse is back in the news. The 29-year-old from Aveiro was praised by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson for caring for him when he was sick for COVID-19. He headed to the government headquarters at Downing Street yesterday for a prime ministerial reception. If the photos are anything to go by, many extremely funny things were said. It was part of the celebration of 72 years of the UK’s National Health System.
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