President confirms end of state of emergency, and no new cases for worst-hit areas
English language coronavirus news in Portugal on April 28, 2020.
We have another positive day in the latest figures, with 295 new confirmed cases and just 20 new deaths. While the number of new confirmed cases isn’t as low as yesterday (163), it’s the fewest deaths we’ve seen since April 6. The number of people marked as recovered continues to increase gradually. That number might start to grow a little faster now. The Directorate-General of Health (DGS) recently changed the criteria so a patient could be marked recovered after one negative test, whereas previously they needed two.
President confirms end of state of emergency
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has confirmed he doesn’t intend to renew the state of emergency when the current 15-day period ends at midnight on May 2, Diário de Notícias reports. After a meeting with epidemiologists today, he said the evolution of the outbreak would now “depend on the Portuguese” people.
“The end of the state of emergency is not the end of the outbreak,” he said. Both the President and Prime Minister António Costa have stressed this many times, adding that it also won’t be the end of confinement or social distancing. Rebelo de Sousa said the future evolution of the pandemic would be subject to permanent evaluation, along with the reopening of the economy in “little steps”.
In terms of the legal framework for what comes next, the President said it would be “premature” to talk about it, according to Público. The Prime Minister yesterday said the country could pass into a state of “calamity” after the lifting of the state of emergency.
New testing centre in western Lisbon
This is a lot more local than what I normally share but I’m including it for two reasons. Firstly, I figure a lot of you probably live in Alcântara, Ajuda, Belém and Campo de Ourique and secondly, it’s a good chance to share some information about what you can do if you’re sick. There’s a new dedicated COVID-19 centre at the Paula Vicente School in Ajuda, according to the Junta de Freguesia de Alcântara. It’s open from 10am until 6pm and can accept people sent by the SNS24 hotline, a health centre (centro de saúde) or anyone with coronavirus symptoms. For those of you in other parts of the city or country, there are dedicated centres set up all over the place, run by the relevant local Health Centres Group (ACES - Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde). You can see a PDF of the community centres here. This DGS website also has information on what to do if you’re ordered to self-isolate in several different languages, not just English.
Photo: Junta de Freguesia de Alcântara
The five worst-hit councils don’t have any new cases today
Yesterday, there were 1413 confirmed cases in Lisbon, 1263 in Vila Nova de Gaia (across the river from Porto), 1211 in Porto, 1019 in Braga and 1017 in Matosinhos (on the coast to Porto’s north-west). Today, the figures are the same, Diário de Notícias reports. The newspaper notes that the council-by-council breakdown in the daily bulletin from the Directorate-General of Health represents only 84% of the country’s total figures. There is usually some discrepancy between the local and national figures due to differences in reporting systems.
In brief
One family, 16 infections and 18,000 people behind a sanitary fence: The strong measures Madeira is taking to fight a small but sudden outbreak on the island
Experts suggest re-opening the country region-by-region. The number of new infections per case (R0) for the country overall isn’t dropping, but some regions are doing better than others
On a lighter note
Livraria Lello, the famous Porto bookstore said to have inspired Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, is running a short story competition, Time Out reports. The six best “Contos da Quarantena” will win €1000 each and be published by the bookstore. The stories should focus on individual experiences in quarantine. The competition form does specifically mention it’s open to estrangeiros (foreigners), but I can’t guarantee they’ll accept stories in English (or any other language). So I’d definitely double check that before you go pouring your hard-earned ink into the competition.
Yes, this is what it really looks like inside. But usually with more tourists.
Thank you for your hard work!!!