Reopening plan to be released on March 11 // More tweaks to lockdown rules for local and international travel
Portuguese news in English on Sunday, March 7, 2021.
NOTE: It looks like my last update, on February 26, didn’t get sent out properly. I’m really sorry about that and will have to chase it up with Substack. Here’s a link to see what you missed, including that fake reopening plan that was going around for a few days.
By the numbers
Case numbers are still going down but, as you can see in the chart below, they’re not dropping as fast as they were. If it wasn’t for yesterday’s 1007 cases, we would have had a full week without more than 1000 cases in a day since the start of October. The number of people in hospital is the lowest it’s been since the end of October but ICU numbers are lagging by about two weeks. One note of concern is what’s happening in Madeira, where case numbers have been almost as high as in the much more populated Lisbon and the Tejo Valley and North regions. There have been some issues there with test results being reported late to health authorities though.
Reopening plan to be released on March 11
We still don’t have a date for the end of lockdown but we do at least know when Portugal’s reopening plan will be released. The government has promised to share the plan on March 11, following meetings with specialists tomorrow and other discussions throughout the week. We’ve already been told not to expect much until after Easter, with schools to reopen first, and probably only for the youngest students. Expresso reports, citing anonymous government sources, that in its current draft form, the plan is more cautious than last year’s reopening and relies on numerical targets (like case numbers, hospital beds and vaccinations, for example) instead of dates. It also advocates a two-speed approach, with some measures lifted on a national level and others varying locally. That’s all still to be finalised but we’ll know for sure soon. Experts have warned cases aren’t falling as quickly as they were and that Portugal isn’t safe from a “fourth wave” upon reopening, Público reports. After a massive drop in February, the R rate (R explained in English, by the BBC) increased slightly last week from 0.68 to 0.71, and the more transmissible British variant was thought to already be responsible for 60% of cases here. Amidst all this, movement data shows people are not staying home as much as during the first lockdown, increasing the opportunities for transmission, Público reports.
More tweaks to lockdown rules for local and international travel
Two minor changes to the lockdown rules have been made since I last spoke to you, both relating to travel. The one that will affect everyone is a slight broadening of the ban on leaving your council area. While the circulation ban has been in place on weekends for some time now, Diário de Notícias reports that it will now also apply from 8pm during the week. For longer journeys, the rules have been tightened around anyone arriving from the UK or Brazil, both places with concerning variants widely circulating. Commercial flights (except for repatriation) are still banned from both countries. But now anyone whose journey originated in either of these countries, even if they stopped somewhere else on the way, will have to present a negative PCR test on entry and self-isolate for 14 days, Diário de Notícias reports. SEF has a rundown here in English of restrictions from other destinations.
A million vaccine doses administered in Portugal
Portugal has administered more than a million vaccine doses but getting enough of the life-saving concoction continues to be a problem right across Europe. The slow rollout, even as the US predicts having enough vaccines for every adult by the end of May (New York Times, in English) and the UK passes 21 million doses administered, has frustrated some European leaders, Público reports. Acting outside of the EU plan, some Eastern countries have started talking to Russia about using its vaccine and Austria and Denmark have partnered with Israel on a project targeting new strains. Italy this week used a newly created EU power to block a quarter of a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine headed for Australia, the BBC reported, in English. Despite all this, Portugal’s Misericórdia care associations have hailed “spectacular” results in the nursing homes they run, Público reports. No one died in any of their care homes last week — compared to 140 deaths in one week at the start of February — something they described as a “direct consequence of vaccination”. The European Medicines Agency has begun investigating Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and is expected to approve the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the middle of this month, Euronews reports, in English.
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In brief
Portugal's Eurovision entry to be sung in English for the first time ever. The choice of The Black Mamba’s Love is on my side has generated a lot of controversy. (Lusa)
Electric car sales passed diesel sales three months ago. The market is changing but analysts say we’ll need to wait a few more months to see if the change is here to stay or was just driven by people buying electric before a tax increase in January (Público)
Government considering strategic environmental evaluation of new Lisbon airport in Montijo. The project has been discussed for decades in one form or another but there are serious environmental concerns about the proposed site. (Lusa)
On a lighter note
Move over, football. It looks like we can add triple jump to the list of sports Portugal is really really good at. It’s been a great couple of days at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, where Portuguese athletes have turned in their best-ever performance. Auriol Dongmo won the women’s shot put on Friday before Pedro Pichardo took out the men’s triple jump today and Patrícia Mamona won the women’s event this afternoon. She broke the national record and beat her Spanish and German competitors by just 1cm to put Portugal (possibly only temporarily) on top of the medal tally.
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