Wear a mask on public transport or cop a fine, and Portugal passes 1000 deaths
English language coronavirus news in Portugal on May 1, 2020.
By the numbers
It’s been approaching for a few days now and today we unfortunately passed 1000 deaths. It’s a sad milestone and a bit of a reminder of the impact this thing is having, in case we’re not all already blindingly aware. The increase in confirmed cases is a bit better than yesterday (540) but a bit worse than the day before (183).
Fines for anyone who doesn’t wear a mask on public transport
We already know masks will be compulsory on public transport from Monday. But after announcing yesterday’s timetable for reopening the country, Prime Minister António Costa revealed there would be fines for those who didn’t comply, Diário de Notícias reported. Wearing a mask will also be compulsory in shops, schools (but not creches) and closed-in spaces but the fines only apply for public transport. In an interview with RTP, the PM said the fines, which would be between €120 and €350, were necessary because of the difficulty of following physical distancing guidelines on public transport.
That’s a problem the operators of Lisbon’s metro are also tackling, Diário de Notícias reports. Metropolitano de Lisboa plans to make more trains available, increase its sanitisation practices and control capacity at critical stations, with eventual police support.
Plenty of small neighbourhood tailor shops are already making reusable masks but these ones for kids from Portuguese brand Zippy are probably the cutest I’ve seen. Don't worry, they'll be making them for adults soon too. The brand says they’re approved by CITEVE, which Diário de Notícias notes is the only body authorised to certify masks in Portugal, but they’re not on this list yet.
What else has changed
I tried to fit all the most important changes into yesterday’s newsletter but I’m sure you still have plenty of questions. Plus, some things were only clarified or revealed later in the night. This FAQs article by Observador is the most comprehensive I’ve seen. Among other things, it points out that while the government hasn’t said anything about reopening the beaches, surfing and other individual aquatic sports will be allowed from Monday, so long as you don’t hang around on the sand afterwards.
The fate of Portugal’s summer festivals also remains unclear. In the same RTP interview in which he talked about fines, the Prime Minister delayed a decision on festivals until next week there was a “huge probability” they wouldn’t go ahead.
Portugal Confidential has helpfully translated the whole timetable for the end of confinement.
1000 people have died. So why start to reopen now?
It seems strange for these two major milestones - the end of the state of emergency and 1000 deaths - to arrive so close together. To mark the first of these, Público has put together a fantastic data piece mapping the evolution of the pandemic in Portugal. If you love charts, this is for you.
In terms of the second, the PM invoked a series of indicators that showed the “positive evolution of the pandemic, Público reported. One of those was the R0 you might have seen being talked about recently, the number of people every sick person infects. Costa said in the past five days, that number had been below 1 in the whole country, at about 0.92. I’ve linked to this New York Times article before that explains, among other things, that an R0 below one means the number of cases is shrinking. Costa also pointed to the stabilising rate of deaths and the shrinking number of daily new infections, patients in hospital and particularly in intensive care units.
Reminder: You can’t leave your council area this long weekend. Just like the restrictions that were in place over Easter, from May 1-3 you’re not allowed out of your municipal area (Lisboa, Porto, Cascais, Oeiras, Peniche, Portimão etc).
In brief
Clinical trials with the plasma of recovered patients to start at 10 health units. It’s part of a national task force investigating if blood plasma can help. Wired has a good read on the treatment’s potential in English.
“All workers have the right to be happy”, Graça Coelho tells Público. She’s just one of many Portuguese workers marking Labor Day after recently having their job suspended, reduced or torn up completely
In hospitals and nursing homes, most workers are women and make only a little more than the minimum wage of €635 a month
On a lighter note
I know in these times you probably don’t need any encouragement to crack open a bottle of delicious Portuguese grape juice, but it’s Friday so here’s some anyway. Time Out is highlighting not one, not two, but a whole list of options to add a bit of learning to your wine consumption. The options range from packs including wine and personalised Skype chats for as much as €100 right down to free options on Instagram. The freebies look like they’ll be in Portuguese but fingers crossed the personalised tastings can be done in English. If not, it’s at least worth checking out the bottles for some new recommendations.
Have a good weekend and stay inside. I’ll be back Monday.