The President of the Republic has just announced. in a communication to the country, which will not renew the state of emergency, which will thus end on April 30th, at 23:59.
"After hearing the experts", "the parties with parliamentary seats" and "the Government", "I decided not to renew the state of emergency", said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in his communication to the country, from the Belém Palace, in Lisbon .
The head of state warned, however, that, if necessary, he would re-impose the state of emergency. "I will not hesitate to move forward with a new state of emergency if the present step does not meet the response based on trust essential for all of us", he stressed.
Explaining the reasons for ending this measure, which had been applied successively since November 9th of last year, the President stressed that “in this decision weighted the stabilization and even the decrease in the average number of deaths, inpatients in the ward and in intensive care ”, as well as “the decrease of R(t)”.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added that "the increase in testing weighed in", but "even more the increase in vaccination".
On the other hand, he stressed, "the fact that it has already passed a month since Easter and the first opening of schools" still weighed heavily.
In his decision, he also took into account “what would mean the recognition of disciplined sacrifice since November and more intensely since January”, also emphasizing the “mobilizing hope of what awaits us all, in life, in health and in the economy”.
Despite the light that is already being seen at the end of the tunnel, the head of state warned that “we are not in a Covid free period, we can infect our contacts and allow the disease to continue to spread. We face the risk of new variants less controllable by the vaccine”, which, he stressed, “justifies a preventive concern for all of us”.
Thanking the specialists for their work, Marcelo also said that “this is the time to thank the specialists”.
For everything he explained, the President of the Republic stresses that the decision taken today is based “on trust, on a trust that must be observed by each one of us” and that, “therefore, without a state of emergency, as it has done and the Government, and the Prime Minister, made clear in his interventions, it is necessary to maintain or adopt all the measures considered indispensable to prevent setbacks, setbacks, returns to a past that we do not want”. Not least because, if that happens, it will not hesitate to re-impose a new state of emergency.
"Each opening implies more responsibility", he added, stressing that the coming times will be "very demanding", this being "a struggle for all", for which "it is necessary to count on each one of us".
In total, Portugal was in a state of emergency for 173 consecutive days, during which there were eleven renewals, since 9 November.
Last year, also because of the pandemic, the state of emergency had been in effect for 45 days, from 19 March to 2 May, with two successive renewals.
In total, there will be 218 days of state of emergency in this juncture of pandemic.
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