Pedro Siza Vieira, Minister of Economy, defended this Thursday, 10th of September, that the Portugal's departure from the UK's list of safe countries it is neither correct nor substantiated by objective reasons.
“It is not a correct decision, which is based on objective reasons for controlling the disease. The United Kingdom does not meet the criteria it defined for the quarantine of visitors», said Siza Vieira, who was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new headquarters of Auchan Retail Portugal, in Paço de Arcos (Lisbon).
The official also recalled that the European Union defined that countries should not apply "restrictions to the circulation" of citizens within the European space.
On the other hand, Siza Vieira noted that economic and tourist operators will have an even more difficult year following this decision.
“For British citizens, it has no foundation either. A person who may be on vacation in Portugal or on business is suddenly faced with this decision», he exemplified.
The British Government has removed Portugal from the list of safe countries, with the exception of the Madeira and Azores regions, and from Saturday it is required to fulfill a two-week quarantine upon arriving in the United Kingdom.
“Through improved information, we now have the ability to assess islands separate from their mainland countries. If you arrive in England from the Azores or Madeira, you won't need to be isolated for 14 days», wrote Transport Minister Grant Shapps, on the social network Twitter.
According to the minister, the measure, which also affects Hungary, French Polynesia and Reunion Island, takes effect at 4:00 am on Saturday in England.
Scotland had already excluded Portugal from its list of “international runners” as of 5 September, while Wales applied restrictions the day before, but kept Madeira and the Azores exempt from quarantine.
Grant Shapps added that Sweden will be exempt from quarantine.
Portugal was only included in the list of countries with "travel runners" with the United Kingdom three weeks ago, on 20 August, but the continued increase in the number of cases of infection in Portugal will have weighed on the decision, which was expected last week , when it surpassed the level of 20 cases per 100 inhabitants.
At the time, Shapps claimed that he did not exclude Portugal due to the declining “positivity rate”.
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