“It is time to handle the pandemic according to the crucial criterion of vaccinations,” Prime Minister António Costa said in Lisbon on Thursday. A relaxation in three stages is planned, based on the progress of the vaccination campaign. A vaccination rate of 57 percent should be achieved by Sunday.
Then shops, restaurants and theaters are allowed to open again until 2 a.m. There is no longer any obligation to work from home and the nightly curfew in the most affected areas will be lifted. The government plans to have 70 percent of the population vaccinated by September. Then the mask requirement in the open air should also be dropped. If a vaccination quota of 85 percent is reached by October, bars and nightclubs should also be reopened for those who have been vaccinated and those who have tested negative.
After the number of infections had risen due to the delta variant of the corona virus, the numbers fell again in recent weeks, according to Costa. “The vaccination has made a very positive contribution.” Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 960,000 people have been infected with the corona virus in the country with its ten million inhabitants, and more than 17,000 have died.
