Portugal Lifts Restrictions of Coronavirus Next Friday

Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza announced today, Wednesday that the emergency state imposed in the country to confront the Coronavirus (known also as COVID-19) will be lifted next Friday.

He added that this decision related to the significant decrease in the number of infections over the last weeks.

The Portuguese president added during a televised speech, that without the emergency state, it is necessary to let all the precautionary measurements in effect to prevent any relapse in the position in the country.

He stressed that he won't hesitate to re-impose the emergency state if such a step is required.

Instead of the emergency state, Portugal will move to a new stage that enables the government to introduce some easier measurements to reduce the possibility of infection.

But any restrictive measurements will be limited and justified.

Portugal with a population of more than 10 million people has registered 16.970 thousand deaths and 834.991 thousand confirmed infections.

It did register any deaths related to the deadly virus last Monday for the first time since August this year.

Portugal walked out of a comprehensive lockdown that lasted for two months.

On the other hand, Lisbon announced on March 29 strengthening the restriction of flights due to COVID-19.

Those newly imposed precautionary measurements were extended to include the arrivals from other European Union countries as the epidemic worsens.

The Ministry of the Interior in Portugal said that those who come from countries with an infection rate of more than 500 per hundred thousand of the population over a period of 14 days, must undergo a two-week quarantine and can only come to do basic work.

This measure includes 11 countries members of the European Union, including France and Italy.

As for 15 other countries of the EU, which have a rate of more than 150 cases per hundred thousand people, only necessary travel is allowed to Portugal, and those countries include Germany and the Netherlands (known also as Holland).