Covid-19: Marcelo defends end of mandatory mask use in mid-September

President says he was one of the first to put on the mask and that he will be the last to take it off

Nuno Costa|File Photo

The President of the Republic today defended the end of the mandatory use of the mask only in mid-September and called on young people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 before the beginning of the school year.

Asked about the end of the mandatory use of the mask, the President of the Republic recalled that it is a competence of the Assembly of the Republic, which will only meet again in plenary in September, so he argued that the extension of this decision “is a good coincidence, after allowing a few weeks to pass”.

“I was one of the first to put it on and I'll be one of the last to take it off. I want to see the August and September numbers first,” Marcelo Rebolo de Sousa told journalists, who was speaking during a visit to the Alcabideche vaccination center, in the municipality of Cascais.

To monitor the vaccination between 12 and 15 years of age, the President of the Republic called on young people to "get vaccinated those who have not yet been vaccinated" before the start of the school year, with the aim of preventing contagion and the spread of the virus and contribute to greater coverage of national citizens with complete vaccination.

“If young people and parents want more prevention than cure, they have to twist their lives and sacrifice the holidays, speed up this process and have the double vaccination. If they hesitate, they wait to see what happens to the neighbour, then, at the beginning of classes, they are subject to getting covid”, he stressed.

As the country prepares, starting on Monday, to enter a new phase of distrust, the President of the Republic also appealed to the “common sense” of the citizens, defending that “greater freedom means that there is greater responsibility”.

"There will be a return from vacations and the beginning of the school year, there will be more movement of people from other countries and we know that there are countries where vaccination is not at our level, so we will need to monitor the next four weeks very carefully and then, continuing the vaccination, we will see exactly what is happening in other places and whether it affects us or not”, explained Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who prefers to take off the mask only in September and tries to “use it as much as possible even on the beach”.

The President of the Republic was pleased “to see thousands and thousands [getting vaccinated]”, considering that “it is always good to open up spaces of freedom” to the population and praised the work of the Task Force, created to manage the process of vaccination, and the Directorate-General for Health.

 



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