"Very difficult days" are coming for São Brás with partial confinement

It's 9:45 am and Maria Amélia Lourenço is alone in the cafe, with no customers to serve. Idália Pires has had a flower stand for 10 years in the Market and foresees “very difficult days”. São Brás de Alportel is the only Algarve municipality that it will go into partial confinement from Wednesday, November 4th, and in the village there is a mixture of sadness and revolt. The blame, in part, "is the very people who relaxed," says Clara Santos.

The announcement was made on Saturday by the prime minister: all municipalities, with more than 240 cases of Covid-19 per 100 inhabitants, in the last 14 days, will have more restrictive measures to fight the pandemic.

Nationally, there are 121, but in the Algarve, out of 16, only one fulfills the criteria. It is São Brás de Alportel, which has 40 active cases and a cumulative total of 71 infected.

“To be included was our medal for good behavior”, jokes Clara Santos, at the door of her establishment. Two weeks ago, he comments, "this was very good", but only the outbreak in the Lar da Santa Casa da Misericórdia, responsible for 24 cases, came to "change everything".

"We also have to think that we are a municipality with only one parish and less population, which affects the issue of ratios", he adds to the report from Sul Informação.

Dozens of people pass every day at the door of his shop, on Rua António Rosa Brito, but his business – selling decorative and tablecloth products – is doing poorly.

Even so, Clara Santos, who already had a family member infected with Covid-19, prefers to focus on the community's response to the health issue.

“You know, I don't feel insecure, not that, but what I notice is that there are people who don't protect themselves. There are people who could stay at home, but go out anyway, to cafes, for example. Who has to work, has to work. Now, who can stay at home… let them stay», he says.

With the new measures as of Wednesday - which include the civic duty of collection, teleworking if possible or the closing of commercial establishments at 22 pm -, Clara Santos guarantees that she will "comply with everything that the law requires".

Only, "unfortunately, there is always the question of businesses being able to close for good". Let Mrs Maria Amélia Lourenço say so. In charge of the Café Dois Irmãos, in Largo de São Sebastião, for 33 years, he says he has never seen «times so dark».

“I think this is all wrong. During the day, I serve a tap, a cake, but nothing like before. We don't really know what the future will be like, but if it was already bad now, it will probably get worse as of Wednesday», the perspective. Proof of how people are “already protecting themselves more” is that, while this conversation is going on, there is not a single customer in the café.

The crisis that Covid-19 brought has already forced it to put the establishment on sale. «Yesterday, for example, was a public holiday and normally I would have a full house. Tables with family, friends, but I hardly had any movement. It is very difficult to keep the business going, but there is little renovation. That's why I'm maintaining myself», he confesses, with a heavy face.

Nearby, at the Eneida stationery, the movement is much greater. There are those who go in to buy the newspaper, to play in the EuroMillions or to pick up school books.

The civility of the customers is that, regrets Angelina Custódio, the owner of the establishment, is not always respected.

«We, now with the new measures, are going to keep everything the same: the rules of the limits of people inside, the masks, the gel at the entrance. We installed these acrylics, we did everything for safety. The situation could get worse, but I will stay open. I have a maid here and it hasn't been easy. This is like managing a house», he says.

To Vítor Guerreiro, president of the Chamber of São Brás, the inclusion of the his county in the list of 121 with partial confinements left him “totally surprised”.

“It's a decision that we don't understand and that we contest. We have the situation under control in the county. We had cases in the home, some in schools, but everything was properly monitored». The fact that São Brás is not considered a low-density municipality (where outbreaks in households do not count towards including a municipality in the list of partial confinement) and that it only has one parish was harmful to the Algarve municipality. «We are not a low-density municipality and so the cases in the homes also count – that's what came into the equation here», says Vítor Guerreiro to Sul Informação.

But the revolt that the executive, which even has the PS majority, feels has already led the Chamber of São Brás to express its displeasure with the Government.

As for relaxation, pointed out by many citizens, the mayor considers that this "is not the main issue", admitting "specific cases in some establishments".

Vítor Guerreiro prefers to highlight the «fantastic work of the traders» who now «will be the most affected by this inclusion» in the list of confinement.

Idália Pires has already felt, on this Day of the Dead, the consequences of the pandemic at her flower stand in the Municipal Market. “People are afraid and business tends to get worse. Yesterday, it should have been a pilgrimage to the cemeteries. Normally, I even hired someone to help me, but this year sales were very low», he tells the Sul Informação.

Vítor Guerreiro also fears for the restoration. “I'm afraid that people who would come, from other municipalities, to attend our restoration, now stay at home”, he laments.

But, as this pandemic has already shown, the most difficult thing is to maintain the (so tenuous) balance between economics and public health. The opinion of Isa Rodrigues, a resident of Machados, is a good example.

“I think the Chamber has done a good job, but I see people behaving badly. I understand that we are all fed up with these times of exception, but I want to believe that people will abide by these new rules. I will stay, more and more, at home. At the same time, I think difficult days are coming, yes, unemployment, precariousness».

But hope, that word that has been heard so much, is the last to die.

«We have to have faith! I think that in 15 days we will be off the list!», concludes Isa Rodrigues, while, from the table at Café da Vila, he looks at the little movement on Avenida da Liberdade.

Photos: Flavio Costa | Sul Informação