New holiday cancellation rules and real estate market predictions
English language coronavirus news in Portugal on April 23, 2020.
Hey guys, sorry this is so late. The email didn’t send for some reason and I’ve only just noticed. Hopefully this attempt gets through to you.
It looks like the number of recoveries has settled down a bit after a couple of days of big changes. We have one of the lowest daily increases in confirmed cases for the month, which looks even better in percentage terms. Unfortunately, another 35 people have died of the disease, which is more than we’ve seen for almost two weeks. But it’s still very much within that 20-35 range we’ve seen for pretty much the whole month. In one more sad piece of data released today, Director-General of Health Graça Freitas 327 of the 820 people to die so far were living in nursing homes.
New rules for holiday cancellations and summer beach days
The Diary of the Republic has revealed holidaymakers rights’ for reservations and journeys affected by the novel coronavirus, Diário de Notícias reports. If the booking is between March 13 and the end of September, you can ask for a voucher of equal value to what you have already paid or work with the accommodation provider to reschedule your booking. The voucher will be valid until December 31, 2021, with the same end date for rescheduling. If you opt for the voucher and don’t use it, you have the right to a refund. The unemployed can ask for a refund within 14 days.
In more holiday news, the Portuguese Environment Agency is working out what rules to impose on beachgoers when the swimming season starts, possibly on June 1, Diário de Notícias reports. At the moment, they’re talking about limiting the number of people on each beach, ensuring towels are two metres apart and requiring the use of masks in bars, cafes and toilets. Neither the date nor the rules have been decided on but should both be set in the first week of May.
Don’t expect beach scenes like this any time soon. Photo: Jorge Branco
Prime Minister says no to tracking but maybe to SMS
I’ve talked before about governments around the world wanting to use contact-tracing apps as part of their plans to reopen their economies. Apple and Google are laying the framework for apps to use bluetooth to, hopefully, identify when you’ve come into contact with an infected person without actually tracking individual locations. Now Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has shared his thoughts in an interview with podcast Política com Palavra, as reported by Diário de Notícias. He says tracking, geolocalisation and identification of people aren’t being considered but doesn’t rule out the possibility of sending SMSes to people who have been in contact with anyone who is sick. The most intrusive thing he could imagine being implemented is for DGS to have access to the phone numbers that a phone has been close to for a certain time period, without knowing who they are, and send them a message.
Real estate consultant doesn’t expect a ‘significant price adjustment’
There are a lot of ideas flying around about what the pandemic will do to the surging real estate market in Portugal, and particularly Lisbon. TVI previously reported rents were already starting to fall. But real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield says there are still no signals of immediate impact on rent values, Jornal de Negocios reports. The firm says international investors continue to have a lot of interest in Portugal, with many showing an availability for “opportunistic” business or deals. A “significant price adjustment'' in the residential market is not expected, C&W says.
Photo: Jorge Branco
In brief
The Portguese nurse who treated Boris Johnson makes his first public statement. You can read about it in Público, Diário de Notícias or check out the original English press release from the hospital
Public health doctors argue for the continuation of the state of emergency
The Hindu Community of Portugal is giving lunches to hospitals, and has already delivered more than 2000
On a lighter note
Researchers from Porto are developing a robot to automatically disinfect hospital spaces, Diário de Notícias reports. I have a hard enough time disinfecting the important parts of my apartment so I couldn’t imagine the responsibility of doing it in a hospital. The team from the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science wants to create a generic robot module that would use ultraviolet light lamps to disinfect the spaces.
Photo: INESC TEC