The President of the Republic today asked the Portuguese to make a collective effort this month to contain the “unsettling rise” of hospitalizations of patients with covid-19 to avoid “an aggravated December”, with ” more drastic restrictions “.

In a communication to the country, from the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced that he had just signed the decree declaring the state of emergency in Portugal from next Monday, for 15 days, until 23 November, and considered this month to be an “essential test”.

In his speech, which lasted about five minutes, the head of state argued that it is necessary, together, to “mitigate the cost of the pandemic” to protect all patients, “covid and non-covid”, and their “legitimate rights to life and health “.

The President of the Republic warned that this is “a challenge that does not end this November, nor in December, nor most likely in the first months of 2021, but that in November, this month, again, it is an essential test”.

“The weeks that follow have to be a collective effort to contain the unsettling rise in the numbers of inpatients in general and inpatients in intensive care in particular, in order to avoid all of an aggravated December and with that, more drastic restrictions for all of us undesirable, “he said.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reinforced this message, adding: “November is, therefore, another test of our restraint, our serenity, our resistance, that we will live in solidarity and determined – just as in solidarity and determined we live in the spring the start of the pandemic and in the summer the most acute situation in Greater Lisbon “.

“The President of the Republic counts with each and every one of the Portuguese in this increased effort. The Portuguese count on the President of the Republic, who is with them in this second state of emergency as he was in the first, in this November test as he has been in everyone else, now and always “, he concluded.