The Algarve’s dams only have enough water available to last until the end of the year, if there is no significant rainfall over the next few months, the Permanent Drought Monitoring Commission revealed in its most recent report.
With just a few days before Portuguese students return to face-to-face classes and thousands of adults to the workplace, the Director-General of Health and Minister of Health warned today that with this greater movement of people Portugal must prepare for a rise in COVID-19 cases in the autumn and winter season.
As coronavirus cases in Portugal go up and down, fears are growing that Britain will reimpose a quarantine for people travelling home from the country. It has been less than two weeks since Britain, Portugal’s leading source of tourism, lifted a 14-day self-isolation rule for travellers arriving from Portugal.
Britain will keep its quarantine policy under review, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman told press today, but declined to comment on media reports that Portugal will be added back onto the government’s no-go list due to rising case numbers around Lisbon and Northern Portugal.
Fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden will be one of 45 witnesses testifying in Portugal in defence of Rui Pinto, whose trove of 70 million documents exposed the dodgy dealings of many European soccer clubs, Pinto’s lawyer said this Monday.
Portugal’s record economic contraction in the second quarter saw exports of goods and services plunge by 40% as the coronavirus eroded revenue from overseas tourists, a breakdown of official GDP data showed on Monday.
The COVID-19 figures for this week show that a worsening of the pandemic situation in Portugal may be on the horizon. The Government guarantees that it is keeping an eye on the epidemiological situation, and that it is for this reason that it has already decided that there will be an increase in the country's state of alertness up to the state of contingency, as of September 15th. The goal is to take new measures and “prepare for autumn/winter”, when numbers are expected to increase.
The Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) is sending border control reinforcements to the Algarve’s Faro airport next week, as authorities struggle to cope with a surge in arrivals of British tourists after quarantine rules were lifted last week thanks to the air bridge.
