Hugo Pereira, Mayor of Lagos, confessed today in statements to journalists, that, since the recent COVID-19 outbreak in his municipality was detected, he has lived through the “worst days” of his life.
This afternoon a wildfire began spreading through the bushland surrounding Vilarinha, within the municipality of Aljezur. By 19:30, there were 323 operational personnel on the ground, supported by 96 vehicles and 11 aerial means.
An illegal party, which took place on the 7th of June, in Odiáxere (Lagos), has now contributed to the infection of 60 individuals with COVID-19, revealed Paulo Morgado, president of the Regional Health Administration (ARS) of the Algarve.
Alongside the Alentejo, the Algarve has been one of the regions in the country with fewer cases of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
Portugal’s parliament approved in the first reading on Wednesday a supplementary budget that increases spending by 4.3 billion euros to help the coronavirus-battered economy. The draft includes 1.6 billion euros for a new furlough scheme, maintaining jobs and employment training, as well as tax discounts and delays for companies pursuing investments or particularly hard-hit by the crisis.
The authorities have so far registered at least 37 positive cases of COVID -19 related to the illegal party held in the municipality of Lagos on the 9th of June, rising from the 16 cases announced yesterday. The cases were identified throughout several locations in the Algarve.
The 22 migrants who arrived in the Algarve by boat from Morocco in the early hours of Monday, detected off the coast of Vale de Lobo, will be transported to temporary settlement centres overnight, the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) said this Tuesday. In a statement, the SEF clarifies that the migrants, all of whom were male, were taken to the Judicial Court of Loulé on Tuesday, "having been subjected to the measures to be housed in a Temporary Installation Centre (CIT), for removal from national territory within the scope of the expulsion process for irregular entry and stay" in Portugal.
Eighty years ago, a middle-aged, mid-ranking diplomat sank into deep depression and watched his hair turn grey in days, as he saw the streets of Bordeaux filling with Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. As Portugal's consul in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes faced a moral dilemma. Should he obey Salazar’s government orders or listen to his own conscience and supply Jews with the visas that would allow them to escape from advancing German forces?
