The inhabitants of the main cities of Portugal, such as Lisbon, Porto, Braga or Faro , will be prohibited from circulating on the street starting this Friday between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., a curfew applied by the Government to stop the advance of the coronavirus, which spreads uncontrollably thanks to the Delta variant.
In total, the restriction affects 45 of the 278 counties of the country, that is, 4 of the slightly more than 10 million Portuguese inhabitants. The measure covers the entire Lisbon Metropolitan Area , the Portuguese region with the highest incidence of Covid-19 in this fourth wave.
There will be no exemptions:all people, even those vaccinated or with a Covid certificate, will have the duty to remain confined at home in that six-hour window. The objective, the Portuguese Executive insists, is to avoid crowds and meetings with many people, especially at night.
For now, the Portuguese archipelagos of Madeira and Azores are exempt from these restrictions.
In addition, the measure adopted three weeks ago by the Government that prohibits the entry and exit of people in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon , from 3:30 p.m. on Friday to 5:00 a.m. on Monday, is still in force. In this case, if there are some exceptions, including people who justify some cause of force majeure or those who are vaccinated or have the digital certificate.
Incidence triggered
This Friday, the General Directorate of Health (DGS) of Portugal reported 2,436 new infections throughout the country, of which 56% were registered in the Lisbon region and 22.7% in the Portuguese north. The number of hospitalized people grew in the last 24 hours by 23 people, up to 532 hospitalized, of which 118 (5 more than yesterday) remain in intensive care.
The 14-day incidence has risen to 189.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and the Rt. index, which measures the number of people infected by each person, also rises to 1.16. The highest incidence in the country is registered in Lisbon and the Algarve , with the Lisbon council in 595 cases, according to data updated by the DGS.
The main cities ofAlgarve , one of the most touristic areas of the country, has also increased its incidence, especially Albufeira, which has the highest incidence in Portugal with 823 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Lagoa (739), Loule (652), Lagos and Faro (423), all from the Algarve, are also at very high risk due to the high incidence.
Resigned and tired
The Portuguese face this setback with resignation and trust that the restrictions will be effective in containing the spread of the virus, although they admit that they are tired after so many years of prohibitions.
Raquel Clemente, a 22-year-old student from Lisbon, explains to Efe that “she sees well” the restrictive measures that come into force in the face of the increase in cases, although she insists: “We are all fed up with this and we want to get out.”
Businesses have to close at 3:30 p.m. in the most affected areas of the country, including the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon, which will be armored during the weekends, something that for Clemente “does not make much sense”, because the other days if it could
Ana Paula is in charge of the Al Dante restaurant in Lisbon’s Plaza del Comercio and thinks that these restrictions will affect “tourism a lot”. He sees the curfew well, although he acknowledges that “everything is very complicated” and that “people are already very tired of this situation.”
Andressa, a shop assistant in a sporting goods store in Lisbon, also sees the situation in Lisbon as “very complicated”, but understands that the curfew “is necessary”. Others, like Carlos Vaz, manager of a tobacconist in Lisbon, explained to Efe that the restrictions will affect “all economic activities” and that his business has losses of more than 70%.