Portugal Enters Phase Two Of Lockdown De-escalation Today, Monday 5

PORTUGAL Enters Phase Two Of The Proposed Lockdown De-escalation Today, Monday 5

Portugal’s next phase of de-escalation of confinement started today, Monday 5, which includes, among other measures, the reopening of terraces, the return to class of secondary school students, and the opening of access to museums and monuments.

In the commercial sector, fairs and markets will be allowed to operate, and stores of up to 200m2 with doors to the street will be able to open, while the terraces are once again allowed to have customers, with a maximum of four people per table.

President Marcelo appealed to citizens to “engage in the national effort” to combat Covid-19, as Portugal enters this second phase, so that phase three of deconfinement, planned for April 19, can go ahead.

On a dour note though, in the 48 hours over the weekend, the country’s ‘Rt rate’ (the transmission rate of the virus) has reached 1, which will surely have an effect on hospital admission numbers, as last Friday 2, there were 512 patients in Portugal’s hospitals, whereas today, data (which was collected on Sunday) shows 536, so in the space of 48 hours, an extra 24 people were admitted to hospital.

Thankfully, ICU’s in Portugal have not shown any increase, with numbers consistently falling across the country, and today’s data shows that there are only 112 patients in the intensive care units, but, with the Rt said to be rising then it remains to be seen what might happen come April 19.

Today’s data, on the face of it, made for pretty good reading though, with only 6 deaths, 158 new infections, and 320 people ‘recovered’, with the overall count of active cases in a country of 10.2m, standing at 25,966, a very small percentage of cases relating to the population size, as reported by theportugalresident.com.