«Surprised and displeased» with the retreat in the lack of confinement decreed by the Government for the county. This is how José Gonçalves, president of the Aljezur Chamber, manifests itself after the prime minister announced that this council would have to return to phase 2 of deconfinement, due to the high incidence of Covid-19 cases.
"Of course I'm unhappy for having to back down, and at the same time surprised with the decision, because at this time we have fewer cases than 15 days ago, when we were suspicious," the mayor told Lusa.
Aljezur, with 465 cases per 100 inhabitants, in 14 days, remains, for the second consecutive week, as the Algarve municipality with the highest incidence of Covid-19, according to data released this Friday, April 30, by the General Directorate of Health (DGS). Still, this is a lower incidence than a week ago, when there were 501 cases per 100 inhabitants.
For the mayor, the criteria for evaluating the cases in the councils continue "to raise many doubts and are inconsistent with the reality of the Covid-19 cases, although he has already taken a step, passing to a weekly assessment".
«When the cases started to appear in Aljezur, we were allowed to deconfine and we spent 15 days in a more comfortable situation in terms of deconfinement, but with the cases active. Now we back off when we have fewer cases, it doesn't make sense. It is time to rethink the way in which these assessments are carried out», underlined the mayor.
José Gonçalves also questioned “the legality and form of applying these measures”, which penalize people and the economy in a situation of disaster.
“There is this issue that I will not fail to question, which is the fact that the state of emergency has not been renewed and these measures are applied in a state of calamity. It is necessary to know what this means in formal and legal terms», he stressed.
For the mayor, Aljezur has been a council with responsibility for managing the pandemic, through exhaustive work and a response to the cases that have arisen, in a council that is also penalized by the fluctuating population.
“Throughout these times of pandemic, we have done a very exhaustive work to fight and prevent the spread of cases and I was hoping that the arguments that were presented by the mayors had arrived at the decision maker, but, once again, they were not enough », concluded.
Eight councils of the 278 existing in mainland Portugal do not advance to the fourth and final phase of the current deconfinement plan, as of Saturday, in the context of the calamity situation, announced on Thursday night the prime minister.
"This new regime applies to most of the mainland territory, it applies in 270 of the 278 mainland councils", stated António Costa.
Among the eight councils prevented from proceeding to the fourth phase are Miranda do Douro, Paredes and Valongo, which remain at their current level, and Aljezur, Resende, Carregal do Sal and Portimão, which retreated to different stages, but which are also held back, even though it may be “for a very short time”, because the Government decided to carry out a weekly assessment.
The Alentejo municipality of Odemira is also part of the group of municipalities that are not progressing to the last phase of decontamination, and the executive decreed a sanitary fence to the parishes of São Teotónio and Longueira/Almograve, due to the high incidence of covid-19 cases, especially among workers in the agricultural sector.
However, the rules provided for in the fourth phase of the decontamination plan, to be applied from today, Saturday, apply to the remaining parishes of this municipality in the district of Beja.
António Costa also warned that there are 27 municipalities that should be alert, as they record an incidence rate of covid-19 above 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, so if they had a second negative assessment, they could be held back or withdrawn from the decontamination plan.
Comments