Portugal is gradually getting back to “normality”

Portugal has been a worldwide example on dealing effectively with Covid 19 pandemic. The state of emergency was declared on March 18 when the country had 642 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2 deaths. Before that, street shops, restaurants, cafés, shopping centres and many other businesses decided to close doors, contributing very positively to limit contamination.

Nearly two months later, the country counts 1,163 deaths, one of the lowest numbers per million inhabitants compared with other countries.

The country started to ease lockdown measures on May 4 with a 3-phase plan.

The first phase includes the reopening of hairdressers, small street shops, bookshops and libraries, although with significant restrictions such as the limit on the number of people inside a shop and the mandatory use of protection masks.

The second phase, starting on May 18, will include medium size shops, restaurants, cafés and terraces, museums, palaces and monuments and childcare centres. Grade 11 and 12 secondary school students will also be able to return to schools and prepare for exams.

The final phase, from June 1, will include larger shops and shopping centres, preschools, cinemas, theatres and religious services. Football leagues may return to competition without spectators and beaches should reopen with a system for crowd control that is still to be finalised.

The Prime Minister stated that “as long as there is Covid, there will be no normal life”. Nevertheless, there is room for optimism considering the country's and national health system's (SNS) effectiveness in dealing with the pandemic.