Algarve Situation Report 19th of December
Three Municipalities at High Risk
Prime Minister António Costa announced this Thursday, new restrictive measures to curb the contagion of the covid.19, namely for the New Year period.
After reviewing the epidemiological situation in the country, the Council of Ministers updated the list of risky municipalities.
In the Algarve there are 3 counties at “high risk”: Faro, Portimão and Loulé, (the latter rose to “high risk”). There are 3 other municipalities that have gone down to “moderate risk”: Lagos, Monchique and Lagoa.
The remaining counties, namely Albufeira, Alcoutim, Aljezur, Castro Marim, Olhão, São Brás de Alportel, Silves, Tavira, Vila do Bispo and Vila Real de Stº António, remain at “moderate risk”.
The new measures take effect on November 24.
Covid-19: RTA President predicts “significant impact” on demand for Christmas and New Year
The president of the Algarve Tourism Region (RTA) today acknowledged that restrictions to contain the covid-19 pandemic will have a “significant impact” on demand in the region at Christmas, but especially over the New Year.
“There are no specific estimates, but we know that there will be a significant impact,” said considering that the tightening of the restriction measures that the Government imposed on Thursday for the New Year will prevent “some expected activity” in a context more permissive.
The president of RTA regretted that the “less serious” epidemiological situation in the Algarve, compared to other regions of the country, was not taken into account by the Government when, on Thursday, it tightened up the restrictions for the New Year, imposing the 23: 00 as the time limit for curfew on the 31st and limiting the circulation on public roads until 13:00 on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of January.
“I am sure that there will be a lot of people coming to their second homes in the Algarve, but [the decision to tighten restrictions on New Year’s Eve] will have a lot of impact on tourism and is a very difficult year extension”, he said .
João Fernandes considered that, although circulation between municipalities remains the same as predicted before the aggravation decided by the Government on Thursday, “the impossibility of circulating on public roads from 13:00 on 01, 02 and 03 will also limit the enjoyment of what in the Algarve is a special condition, which is being able to walk outdoors for a good part of the day”.
“It was a year in which this demand was obviously very important, the coincidence of the 31st being on a Thursday and 01 Friday allowed for a long weekend, but these measures – which come to condition the period of pre-booked dinners, New Year’s Eve festivities and New Year’s lunch, as well as circulation on the public road in the following days – end up dictating a loss of the potential we had for this period”, he argued.
Arrivals of illegal immigrants to the Algarve do not reveal a migratory route
The arrival in the Algarve of illegal immigrants, less than 100 people, does not yet make it possible to say whether there is a new migratory pattern or whether Portugal is just a transit point, according to the Secretary of State for Migration, Cláudia Pereira.
“There are less than 100 people who have arrived. I know that they had a lot of media visibility, but there are less than 100, which still doesn’t allow us to know if it is a new migratory pattern. We still don’t even have data to understand if they wanted to come to Portugal or if they wanted to leave Portugal and go to other countries. More than half have applied for asylum”, but none of these people have yet been given any status, the Secretary of State for Integration and Migration, Cláudia Pereira, said in an interview to Lusa, regarding the International Migration Day, which is being celebrated today.
Since December 2019, small groups of migrants on boats, originating in Morocco, have sporadically arrived in the Algarve.
This reality led the Portuguese State to decide to speed up a process that was already underway to reach a bilateral agreement with Morocco, to be worked on by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to frame migrations based on the demand for work in Portugal, said Cláudia Pereira, who also mentioned that, so far, the Government is unaware of any other possible route besides this one.