The decline is limited, but Portugal is daring a fresh start.

Ironically, at the beginning of the holiday season, the Delta variant began its advance on the European mainland and caused the number of infections to skyrocket.

The Portuguese government is confident that this development has stopped for now.

Hans-Christian Rößler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.

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The first easing came into force on Sunday. Now is the time to "take a step forward", said Prime Minister António Costa: Portugal wants to liberate the economy and society step by step. This is "in line with the pace of vaccinations, which have contributed significantly to making these measures possible," said Costa. By the weekend, 57 percent of Portuguese people should be vaccinated.

The incidence has been falling again since July 21. At that time, a new high had been reached with more than 4,300 new infections within 24 hours, hotspots were Lisbon and the Algarve coast. Last Saturday, only 2590 new cases were registered. The seven-day incidence is now around 200 cases per 100,000 population. That is significantly lower than in neighboring Spain and Great Britain, which recently caused a sensation with a sharp decline.

This is encouraging the government to ease the restrictions that since June had helped to get the latest wave under control. Although up to 98 percent of new infections can be traced back to the delta variant, the nightly curfew ended on Sunday, which previously applied from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following day for all counties with a particularly high incidence. The greater Lisbon area and cities such as Faro, Lagos and Porto were also affected. Restaurants and bars are allowed to open again until 2 a.m. For their interiors on weekends and public holidays - as well as for fitness studios, sports and cultural events - a digital vaccination certificate or a negative corona test is required. It must also be presented when staying in a hotel and upon entry.The obligation to work from home now only becomes a recommendation.

So far, bad experiences with loosening

The second phase of the easing plan is slated for September, once 70 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Then masks only have to be worn when there are large gatherings of people and indoors, but no longer outdoors.

Nightclubs and bars that have been closed since March 2020 are expected to reopen in October, when 85 percent of Portuguese have full vaccination protection.

The vaccination campaign helped ensure that the latest corona wave did not overload the health system as it did in February.

The number of Covid patients in hospitals and corona deaths increased, but not as dramatically.

It was mainly younger, unvaccinated Portuguese who became infected, of whom only a few became seriously ill.

At the end of February, more than 300 deaths were registered on some days, on Saturday there were 17. The number of corona patients also continued to decline.

However, the improving numbers do not change the fact that the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) classifies Portugal as a high-risk area.

For German returnees who have not been fully vaccinated or have recovered, this still means at least five days of quarantine.

Portugal had bad experiences with easing too quickly. After the Christmas holidays, a devastating wave hit the country with the British alpha mutant. The state of emergency was only lifted at the beginning of May, before Delta came in June and people's freedom of movement was restricted again. At times, the RKI classified the entire country as a virus variant area.