Reinforcement of containment measures

The Council of Ministers held an extraordinary meeting this Monday, 18 January, to strengthen measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enter into force at midnight on Wednesday, 20 January.

In addition to the measures in force since 15 January, the Government decided to add the following:

• to ban circulation between municipalities at weekends
• to limit the opening hours of shops of any kind until 8 p.m. on business days and until 1 p.m. on weekends
• to limit retail food shop hours to 5 p.m. at weekends
• to ban promotional campaigns, sales and liquidations that promote the circulation of people
• to ban the sale of goods to the wicket in non-food shops. In the case of cafes and restaurants, the sale to the wicket is permitted only for packaged products without drinks
• to ban gatherings and the consumption of food in the vicinity of restaurants and cafés
• to ban the operation of restaurants in shopping centres, even on take-away
• to close of all sports equipment, including outdoor tennis and padel courts
• to close day centres, senior universities and conviviality spaces
• to ban people from staying in gardens and public leisure areas
• to require the issuing and submission of a statement by the employer to anyone travelling on public roads for work purposes
• to require service companies with more than 250 employees to communicate to the Authority for the Work Conditions (ACT) within the next 48 hours the nominal list of all workers whose face-to-face work they consider indispensable
• to open free time activity centres (ATL) for children up to the age of 12.

In addition to these measures, the Government has also determined:

• to increase the supervision by the security forces, especially in the vicinity of school premises, as well as by the ACT
• to accelerate vaccination in residential structures for the elderly so that the first dose is completed by the end of January.

Source: Estamos On Portal