The President of the Republic today expressed confidence in the ability of the Portuguese to take responsibility and assume a "self-management of the pandemic" of Covid-19, an issue on which he said there was convergence on the part of specialists.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was speaking to journalists at the end of another session on the situation of Covid-19 in Portugal, at Infarmed's auditorium, in Lisbon.
Asked whether the low literacy of part of the Portuguese population does not advise against this "self-management", the head of state considered that, on the contrary, the Portuguese have shown "high literacy in responding to health appeals" to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Portugal.
«One thing is literacy in terms of schooling, which has been increasing, fortunately, in Portuguese society. Another thing is in terms of civic culture, of experience, in which the Portuguese, regardless of the level of education they have, have responded in the affirmative, showing what I would say is a capacity for high literacy in the field of protecting their health and the health of others,” he argued.
With the President of the Assembly of the Republic, Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, and the Prime Minister, António Costa, at his side, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa highlighted the current «levels of testing» in the country, «five times higher than what happened a year ago ».
"This represents an effort on the part of the Portuguese and their ability to assume the call for self-management of the pandemic", he defended.
According to the President of the Republic, at this meeting there was "total convergence between the various specialists regarding the analysis of the situation" of Covid-19 in Portugal and "all converged in the sense of what was defined, and well, by Professor Raquel Duarte , as a health self-management, accompanied, monitored, obeying the rules defined by the health authorities, but in the sense of holding the Portuguese responsible».
“Although Portugal, after Sweden, is the most open European society in terms of restrictions, this has not meant a pressure on hospitalizations, intensive care and the number of deaths comparable to what happened a year ago or corresponding to the growth of contagions or the number of cases in recent weeks and days», he pointed out.
Asked about a possible postponement of the start of classes scheduled for 10 January, taking into account the possibility of a new peak of contagion next week, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that «the experts presented a mathematical model, which is different from a projection, but naturally that the Government will consider, following what has been heard here, the type of measures to be adopted».
The head of state stressed, however, that in this session the opening of classes was not questioned and that "there was no proposal by any specialist here that pointed to the introduction of significant restrictions in what is a situation of economic and social opening in our country" .
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