Curfew in Portugal from 9 days after outbreak of the disease

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa has announced that a curfew will be imposed in most parts of the country starting from the 9th in order to combat the 2019 outbreak of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), which is increasing in number of cases.

Antonio Costa said after an emergency cabinet meeting on the 7th that the curfew will be in effect from Monday through Friday nights and from 1 p.m. on weekends for at least two weeks.

The curfew comes a day after a state of emergency was declared in Portugal due to the spread of the epidemic, which has tripled to 6,000 confirmed cases in a single day since the beginning of October.

Costa said, “The only thing that can control the epidemic is to avoid social interaction.” He believes that these practices are necessary to avoid a return to the stricter lockdowns that were implemented in the spring.

The curfew, Costa said, applies to nearly 70 percent of the country’s population.

In addition to Portugal, Greece, Poland and other European countries also imposed new closures over the weekend to contain the second wave of a serious epidemic across the continent.