PM asks President to declare state of emergency // Questions answered about new restrictions
Portuguese news in English on November 2, 2020.
By the numbers
There’s a little bit of good news today but it’s outweighed by some pretty bad news. Today’s 2506 new confirmed cases are the fewest in two weeks but unfortunately more Portuguese covid-19 patients have died today than on any other in the pandemic to date. Further tempering the good news, Mondays almost always have the lowest case numbers and the public holiday yesterday possibly also helped to depress testing numbers. People are also flooding into hospital faster than ever, with another 283 in the past two days. Director-General of Health Graça Freitas today said it wasn’t possible to say when the peak would be, adding that it would only be possible to discern after cases start to decline.
Source: DGS
PM asks President to declare state of emergency
Prime Minister António Costa has asked President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to declare a “prolonged” state of emergency, aimed mostly at laying a strong legal framework to restrict movement and use private health resources to fight the pandemic, Público reports. The PM said the measures wouldn’t be as broad as earlier this year, and a full lockdown isn’t on the table, for now at least. Mr Costa said November would be a particularly difficult month, with a “very significant” number of new cases, more people in hospital and more lives lost than during the first wave. He said the escalation was likely to last longer than the minimum 15 days and would at this stage be used to allow four main actions: potential restrictions of movement, measuring of temperatures at work and public places, requisitioning public and private health resources to help with the pandemic, and allowing contact tracing by non-health workers, such as the armed forces (supervised by professionals). Constraints on movement could include restrictions in the 121 worst-affected councils between 11pm and 6am or on certain days. The Social Democrats and Left Bloc (BE) have already expressed their support for a state of emergency declaration.
Reuters, in English, reports the President is expected to proclaim the emergency tonight, on TV. Diário de Notícias reported the PM had left the door open to a harsher confinement in the first weeks of December, which has recently been rumoured to be in the works.
Click here for interactive version.
Questions answered about new restrictions from Wednesday
As I mentioned on Saturday night, 7.1 million people in 121 new council areas face sweeping restrictions from Wednesday. I had some questions and I’m sure you do too so I’m sharing a few of the answers from this Público article. Is working from home mandatory? Yes, unless that’s not possible. If a worker and business disagree on that, the Authority for Working Conditions is responsible for deciding. Can I leave my council? Yes, after 6am on Tuesday, BUT, you should avoid going out in public where possible. Exceptions include going to work, school, services (such as the post office) nursing home visits and leaving the country. Can I go to a restaurant or concert or see my friends outside? Also yes, so long as there’s only five of you. However, the PM stresses we need to “do everything we can … to avoid being one more patient they (doctors and nurses) need to treat”. Unfortunately I can’t clear things up any more than that.
This is the same chart on a logarithmic scale, which better represents the speed of the increase in new cases. Click here for interactive version.
Minority business owners complain of different treatment
Despite initial assurances that “we’re all in this together”, all around the world we’ve been seeing the effects of the pandemic fall unequally on the poor, disadvantaged and minorities. This Al Jazeera report shines a light on a small but important part of that experience on the outskirts of Lisbon. Sandra Pina says her cafe was closed down for two weeks in September and customers have been hesitant to return since because of regular police visits. According to her, police said they’d been sent to her cafe in Casal da Boba because she was selling beer, which is only allowed with meals after 8pm. The article doesn’t go into whether she was or not but the main concern is a feeling that businesses in areas like this are being treated differently to more central suburbs. “If you go down the road to the white neighbourhoods you’ll see the cafes are full of people drinking, sitting in groups, playing cards for example,” says Casal da Boba community organiser José Sinho Baessa da Pina says. “They treat us completely differently up here. It’s like they’re not here to protect us – they’re here to provoke us.”
In brief
Almost two dozen on trial for Tancos stolen weapons scandal. Grenades, plastic explosives and ammo were stolen from the Portuguese army base, then later returned. (Jornal Económico, in English)
’They want to kill us’: Lisbon stallholders in revolt over ban on markets. “Once again we’re being discriminated against, this time even more than ever.” (Diário de Notícias)
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On a lighter note
Portugal has won big again at the so-called “Oscars” of tourism, including being crowned Europe’s Leading Destination for the fourth year running, Público reports. Tourism is probably just about the last thing on most of our minds but hey, it’s still pretty cool to know we’re living in the country that’s home to Europe’s best adventure tourism (The Azores), best city break (Porto), best beach destination (the Algarve), best island destination (Madeira) and several more. You can read the press release in English here and take a look at the other *checks notes* 130 categories here.
Porto, Europe’s best city break. Photo: Jorge Branco
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