Covid-19: Portugal extends state of emergency until 17 April 2020

veröffentlicht am 3. April 2020 | Lesedauer ca. 1 Minute

The Portuguese Parliament voted in favor of the President´s request to extend the state of emergency for two more weeks. Yesterday the Portuguese Government had already supported this decision in order to combat the outbreak in the country.

The state of emergency was initially declared on March 18. Though, the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, requested the two weeks extension after the number of confirmed infections and deaths from the Covid-19 virus had increased in the past few days.

Beyond restrictions already in place, the declaration allows the Government of Portugal for: compulsive confinement of people in their homes; the requisition of private property to be used for any services; the obligatory opening and functioning, or indeed closing, of businesses; sanity controls to stop people living their areas of residence; the enforced use of public or private sector workers in areas deemed necessary; further restrictions on air traffic in and out of the country; extra powers for security forces and tight controls on meetings or public demonstrations.

The Council of Ministers will meet by the end of the week to decide on exactly what measures will be taken and from when.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, has already infected nearly 450.000 people worldwide of whom more than 20.000 have died. Portugal registers 187 deaths associated with Covid-19 and 8.251 confirmed cases of infection according to the bulletin released yesterday by the Directorate – General for Health.