The Prime Minister said on Monday that, among experts, the best decision is to keep educational establishments open in a new confinement and said that this is also the will of the government
At a press conference, António Costa refused to anticipate the content of the final decisions” to be taken by the government on Wednesday, as part of the regulation of the new presidential decree to extend the state of emergency in Portugal.
“The experts do not point to the need for school closures. The government’s wish is that school activity can continue to run smoothly,” he said.
Already questioned whether the government intends to move towards the civil requisitioning of private healthcare providers, with a view to removing pressure from public hospitals on the admission of Covid-19 patients, the Prime Minister spoke only of “negotiations” between the state and private providers.
“There are already several agreements signed, especially in the northern and central regions. These agreements have been in use,” he said.
He also said that “negotiations are underway on the use of new capacities in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region”.
“I am talking about private capacity from a hospital point of view. There are other areas where work with the private sector has been excellent, such as testing. Still in the last weeks we reached the record of 52,000 tests in a single day. It has been possible to combine the testing capacity of the public and private sectors, but also with universities and polytechnics,” he added.
