Loures (Portugal) (AFP)

"If we cannot leave the neighborhood, then we have to help us", pleads a young resident of the northern suburbs of Lisbon who will be subject from Wednesday to a reorganization to control coronavirus outbreaks which worry Portugal.

"If we can't work, we can't pay (...) We need food support and a suspension of bill payments," Iuri Fidalgo, a Portuguese of Cape Verde origin, told AFP. living in the city of Quinta do Mocho, in the commune of Loures.

Already, "people in the neighborhood can not buy masks and gel. It is complicated," complained the 23-year-old rapper, a few hours before the entry into force of new restrictions.

With an average of 321 new infections per day, the number of new cases reported in Portugal increased by a third in June compared to May. They remain largely concentrated in the Lisbon region.

- Double penalty -

Double jeopardy: the communities most affected by the recent outbreaks of contamination are those who were the most disadvantaged to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic.

"The homes are located where people cannot stop working and using public transport which does not allow them to respect the physical distance supposed to be compulsory", explains the deputy mayor of Loures, Gonçalo Caroço .

This communist municipality has been asking the national authorities to increase the frequencies of public transport for several weeks. Halved during the confinement imposed in mid-March, the transport offer must return to 90% from Wednesday.

"I'm afraid, of course. If a bus is too full, I go back down," said Wumi Afonso, a 37-year-old cook from Sao Tome and Principe, while waiting in Sacavém for a second bus which should allow her to reach the restaurant where she works in Lisbon.

By touching short-time working, she was able to confine herself for two months with her four children, but her husband never stopped working because "in construction, you only earn money if you work".

In the 19 districts subjected to a new containment, which form a contiguous whole even if they extend over the municipalities of Lisbon, Sintra, Loures, Amadora and Odivelas, the gatherings were limited to five people, against ten in the whole of the metropolitan region and twenty in the rest of Portugal.

- "Necessary measures" -

"These measures are necessary," was able to confirm on the ground the nurse Silvia Gonçalves, who criss-crosses the districts of Loures with teams mobilized by the town hall since early June, in order to remind the population of the importance of health precautions.

This specialist in "community health" has no doubt that the new coronavirus mainly infects "the most vulnerable", in particular in the cities which suffer from poverty, precarious employment and over-occupation of housing.

"In a neighborhood like Quinta do Mocho, a small home is already worrying because its nearly 3,000 inhabitants will find it very difficult to isolate themselves from each other," she explained.

"As long as people are hungry, nothing will prevent them from going to work, even being positive about Covid-19," said the deputy mayor. "The best way to confine them is to give them the social and economic support they need."

For the past week, the Lisbon region has been experiencing new restrictions to avoid crowds, such as banning the consumption of alcohol on the streets or closing shops and cafes from 8 p.m.

© 2020 AFP