Portugal’s president is on Thursday to ask parliament to extend the state of emergency for another 15 days.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is sending a decree to parliament to request the state of emergency be extended from November 24 to December 8, in a bid to contain a surge in new COVID-19 cases.
“I will send this afternoon to Parliament – taking into account what I heard from political parties, what we all heard from experts, the government’s opinion – a diploma to be voted on tomorrow [Friday]”, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told journalists at Portugal’s medicines agency Infarmed, following a meeting to assess the country’s epidemiological situation, which was attended by politicians and experts.
Portugal reported 6,994 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday for the last 24-hour-period, the highest number of cases seen since the beginning of the pandemic, and 69 more deaths, according to health authority DGS.
