Rule relaxations brought forward // Lisbon and Braga held back because of too many cases
Portuguese news in English on Sunday, June 13, 2021.
By the numbers
We’ve returned to that part of the pandemic where things are, without question, getting worse instead of better. Cases are rising fairly steadily every day and even the really nasty indicators like deaths and people in ICU have started to creep up again. Case numbers in most of the country are actually pretty similar to where they were a month ago but Lisbon and the Tejo Valley is a big exception, with 60% of all new cases over the past week. With the exception of the six people who died on Thursday, we’re still saying about one or two people die a day and the number of people in ICU is still significantly below 100. It’s hard to know how much of that is down to more vulnerable people being vaccinated and how much is because of the amount of time it takes for people to get sick, become seriously ill and die, creating a long lag between cases increasing and other indicators.
Rule relaxations brought forward
So the government caught me by surprise and brought the next phase of reopening forward to Friday (two days ago). Sorry I wasn’t able to send this out sooner, I went away for a few days without my laptop. Arguably the biggest change is hospitality and cultural spaces being able to stay open until 1am and retail businesses returning to their normal hours, as Público reports. There are also changes to testing rules, with anyone heading to a big sporting, cultural or major family event now needing to take a COVID-19 test (rapid antigen tests seem to be ok). Workplaces with more than 150 people also require testing. Working from home is no longer mandatory, public services are open without an appointment and public transport can be two thirds full, or completely full if there’s no standing room (like express trains). Amateur sport can have a one-third capacity in allocated seating.
Lisbon and Braga held back because of too many cases
Of course, the huge exception to this relaxation is Lisbon City Council. The centre of the capital, along with Braga, Odemira and Vale de Cambra, continues under the same set of restrictions in place over the past few weeks, Público reports. All four registered more than 120 cases per 100,000 people in a fortnight in two consecutive assessments. Minister of State for the Presidency Mariana Vieira da Silva said the situation in the Lisbon and the Tejo Valley region was “concerning”. She said more young, unvaccinated people were testing positive and that there were signs of a growing number of hospitalisations but still far from the pressure previously seen. Ten councils are on alert for passing the 120 mark for the first time: Albufeira, Alcanena, Arruda dos Vinhos, Cascais, Loulé, Paredes de Coura, Santarém, Sertã, Sesimbra and Sintra.
Lisbon gave Russian dissidents’ data to Russian officials
Lisbon City Council found itself at the centre of a major international controversy this week for passing on the personal of three Russian activists to Vladimir Putin’s regime, as Expresso first reported. Mayor Fernando Medina faced calls for resignation after apologising for what he called a “bureaucratic error", Politico reported, in English. Russian-Portuguese dual citizen Ksenia Ashrafullina, one of the three activists, told the publication that email exchanges between her and the Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, showed their details, provided to the council ahead of a rally to protest the arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in January, had been sent to Russian authorities. There’s now talk of changing the 1974 law governing the right to protest, which pre-dates the nation’s constitution, but Diário de Notícias spoke to a constitutional expert who said what the council did had nothing to do with the law. Público reported that the government knew about the issue since March and quoted President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa saying it couldn’t be allowed to happen again at any level of government.
A couple of quick notes from last week: A reader has kindly informed me that the vaccine sign-up for people not enrolled in the SNS isn’t working properly. Unfortunately, I don’t really have any alternatives but you could try the High Commission for Migration. Also, Spain almost immediately reversed its decision to require negative tests from people crossing the border from Portugal, Diário de Notícias reports. So that’s something to keep in mind if you’re travelling.
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In brief
National Guard (GNR) officer beaten in training and sent temporarily blind. The instructor was handed a 121-day suspension. (Diário de Notícias)
FC Porto was paid €400,000 to host the Champions League final. UEFA also paid Benfica and Sporting to rent their respective stadiums in last year’s finals series. (Público)
A ‘new lung’ for Lisbon. Parque Ribeiro Telles opens in Praça de Espanha as part of wider restoration works costing €16 million (Diário de Notícias)
On a lighter note
Portugal has been named the “best European country for a road trip”, which if you’ve cruised past stunning landscapes on any of its (mostly empty) highways you might agree. Global travel research site Momondo analysed 31 countries against six criteria — climate, safety and infrastructure, price, traffic and sustainability, car rental, nature and points of interest — to determine the winner. Having road-tripped from Lisbon to Guimarães this past weekend, Portugal can consider itself lucky there was no section for tolls and fuel. Apparently, our little nation won points for road quality, nature ans points of interest and rental car prices, with lots of sunshine and limited air pollution among the highlights.
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