Lisbon, January 15, 2021. -
AFP
New confinement in Portugal: ten million Portuguese are called upon to self-confine from this Friday, for the second time since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.
But the impact of the new restrictions was less visible than those of last spring, AFP journalists noted.
The streets of central Lisbon were less crowded than usual, but many residents left their homes, including dropping their children off at schools, which this time were not closed.
“There are fewer people in the street, but look, the buses are full!
The metro was also full this morning, ”testified Maria Andrade, a 71-year-old woman who has decided to open her small restaurant even though she can only do take-out.
Many exceptions
“Frankly, for me there is no confinement, I do not realize it,” said Eduardo Carinho, newspaper seller.
“What is really closed are businesses and restaurants, because otherwise everything else works,” he said.
Faced with an upsurge in the number of new cases of Covid-19 detected every day, and increasing pressure on the country's hospitals, the Portuguese government resolved on Wednesday to impose a new "general duty of home confinement".
The new measures, which will remain in effect for at least a month, include the closure of non-essential businesses, cafes and restaurants, or the obligation to switch to telecommuting when possible.
These restrictions nevertheless provide for many exceptions which allow, in particular, the opening of courts, churches or florists.
"If containment fails, the price will be very high", for his part warned in his editorial the director of the benchmark newspaper Publico, Manuel Carvalho, calling on the Portuguese to take the new measures "very seriously".
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