Portugal’s new confinement due to be announced on Wednesday is the “price to pay for the irresponsibility” of families at Christmas, said the president of the Algarve municipalities association (AMAL).
“It’s best we all prepare for a situation of general confinement. It is inevitable and will be the price to pay as a community for some people’s irresponsible behaviour,” António Pina said at the latest press conference about the state of the pandemic in the Algarve.
“It is up to each one of us to be responsible,” he said, adding that there’s “no point in asking the police, the government or anyone else to control the conscience and individual responsibility of each citizen”.
Meantime, regional health delegate Ana Cristina Guerreiro confirmed that most of the new Covid-19 cases have been linked to family gatherings during the festive period.
Said Guerreiro, the aim now is to keep the infected isolated and under surveillance, and to identify those with whom they have come into contact.
According to the health delegate, the virus has spread widely across the region, with only the smaller boroughs being spared thus far.
