Portugal Says Lisbon Stores Will Close Earlier During Weekends

(Bloomberg) -- Portugal said restaurants and non-food stores in Lisbon will close earlier during the weekend as it tightens restrictions again to try to contain an increase in coronavirus cases in the region.

Shops and restaurants will have to close at 3:30 p.m. on weekends in three municipalities including Lisbon, Presidency Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva said at a press conference on Thursday. While a limit on weekend travel to and from the greater Lisbon area will remain in place, it won’t apply to people who present a negative Covid-19 test.

The government is facing a surge in Covid-19 infections around the capital, where the delta variant has a high incidence, and had already said on June 9 that the next step of a plan to gradually ease confinement measures across the country wouldn’t apply in Lisbon. Portugal aims to administer at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose to 70% of its adult population by Aug. 8.

“This is a critical period in terms of the pandemic in our country,” Vieira da Silva said.

• The government reported 1,556 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, mostly in the Lisbon region, the highest number of daily cases since Feb. 20. The latest figures are still a fraction of the daily record of more than 16,000 cases reported at the end of January, when the country faced one of the world’s worst outbreaks.

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