The Portuguese government has declared that remote working would be necessary during the week of January 2-9 in an effort to avoid a surge in coronavirus infections following the Christmas and New Year’s holiday break in Portugal.
A news conference held by Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa on Thursday in Lisbon announced that schools will resume on January 10, a week later than had been initially anticipated. Remote working will be encouraged wherever feasible until the first week of January.
The usage of masks will be required for all closed areas starting in December, digital certificates will be required for entrance to restaurants and hotels, and negative testing will be necessary for nightclubs, pubs, and sporting events starting in January. Masks are already mandatory on public transportation at the moment.
The government will raise fines on airlines that fail to conduct negative Covid-19 tests for passengers landing in Portugal. Negative Covid-19 tests will be needed for all aircraft arriving in Portugal.
The new limitations are being unveiled about two months after the administration lifted the majority of restrictions in the wake of a high vaccination rate reported in the country, Portugal is currently implementing measures to combat the most recent outbreak of coronavirus illnesses in the area, which has forced countries such as Austria to implement a lockdown.
Approximately 86% of the country’s population has already finished vaccination, making it one of the world’s highest vaccination rates. A third vaccination dosage is presently being administered to adults over the age of 65 in Portugal, and it is also being administered to select specified groups such as healthcare professionals. It wants to meet a target of 2.5 million patients receiving a third dosage by the beginning of January. The extra dosage has been administered to more than 900,000 patients to date.
On Wednesday, Portugal recorded 3,773 new coronavirus infections, the greatest number of daily cases reported in the country in four months. The number of patients in intensive-care units currently stands at 103 people. New confirmed cases are still less than a quarter of the daily record of more than 16,000 cases reported at the end of January, when the country was dealing with one of the world’s worst outbreaks and the number of patients in intensive-care units hovered around 900, prompting the government to impose strict confinement measures to keep the outbreak under control.
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