Portugal says its exclusion form UK list is senseless

The Portuguese government said on Friday the United Kingdom's decision to leave Portugal out of a quarantine-free list was "senseless," but the country would not change its welcoming policy towards British nationals.

Speaking at a press conference in Lisbon, Interior Minister Eduardo Cabrita said that to spend a holiday in Portugal was "one of the best safe options that a British citizen may undertake" and wished well to the long time partner country in fighting the pandemic.

By moving quickly during the pandemic's early days, Portugal avoided the exponential rates of infections and deaths reported by other European Union countries, including neighbouring Spain.

But since emerging on May 2 from a state of emergency and 45-day lockdown, the country has recorded an average of 275 new cases a day.

On Friday, it reported 374 — again most of them in the Lisbon metropolitan area.

Frustrated at being unable to extinguish the hot spots through aggressive testing, tracing and isolation, the Portuguese government on Wednesday stepped up its response, reintroducing restrictions in 19 of the 118 parishes in the Lisbon metropolitan area identified as problematic.

They are among the most densely populated parts of the metropolitan area, which encompasses almost 3 million people.

A five-person limit on gatherings has been brought back in those parishes from July 1, and inhabitants can leave home only to go to work, shop, practice sports or help needy family members. Stores will have to close at 8 p.m (1900GMT).

Consuming alcohol outdoors is banned along with the sale of alcohol at gas stations, where young people often buy it.

More police are to patrol the streets and ensure that people wear masks inside stores. People gathering in groups of more than five face individual fines of up to 500 euros (560 US dollars).

The government argues that the relatively high number of new cases being discovered is due to its testing effort, with an average of 98,000 tests performed a week, and rejects suggestions that the outbreak is running out of control.

Officials also note in Portugal's defence that its COVID-19 mortality rate is relatively low, in European Union terms, at 149 per million inhabitants.

Furthermore, the government points out that the country's hospitalisation rate for the coronavirus, at 2.9% of those infected, means that the public health service has coped with the outbreak.

Overall, Portugal has reported just over 43,156 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,598 deaths.

By comparison, the United Kingdom had confirmed 283 757 cases and 43 995 deaths by Friday, according to the European Centre for Disease Control.