BERLIN: Portugal has sealed itself off to contain the coronavirus which is rapidly spreading in the Iberian country.
Since Sunday, entry and exit without a valid reason is prohibited in the popular holiday destination.
At the country’s border with its neighbour and EU partner Spain, controls have been reintroduced - as they were in the spring of 2020.
Controls at ports and airports were also tightened according to a government decree. Exceptions apply for people travelling to work, returning to their main residence, for the transport of goods and for medical emergencies or humanitarian aid. The 1,214-kilometre land border between Portugal and Spain had already been closed for the first time on March 17 because of the pandemic. It was only reopened on July 1 in the wake of the sharp decline in the number of infections at the time.
The coronavirus situation in Portugal is “very bad,” according to Prime Minister Antonio Costa.
On Saturday, 12,435 new infections and 293 more deaths were registered in the country of 10.3 million inhabitants.
Measured against the size of the population, these figures are among the highest in the world, according to calculations by international organisations.
According to the latest figures of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 1,429 people per 100,000 inhabitants were infected with the virus within 14 days, putting Portugal ahead of Spain, where the number was 1,026, at the top of the list of 30 countries.
EU partners Austria and Germany have offered to help Portugal’s overstretched health service as it struggles to deal with a surge in Covid-19 cases requiring treatment in hospital.
Austria has offered to take in seriously ill Covid-19 patients from Portugal. The number of people to be flown to Austria will be clarified with the Portuguese Health Ministry, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced on Sunday. — dpa
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