On Thursday, the Portuguese government announced that they were tightening COVID restrictions and implementing tougher border controls in response to the increase in new COVID cases in the country. This is in spite of the fact that Portugal is the most vaccinated country in the European Union with 87.8% of its population fully vaccinated.
"Despite the vaccination success...we have to be aware we are entering a high-risk phase because we see a big rise in the pandemic in the rest of Europe and Portugal is not an island," Portugal's Prime Minister António Costa said, as reported by Politico. He also announced that on December 1, the "state of calamity" that was lifted four months ago will be returning.
The highly-vaccinated nation's government established new rules, including requiring all travelers flying into Portugal to show a negative COVID test before boarding the incoming flight. Airlines who fail to check their passengers will face a €20,000 or $22,443 fine per passenger.
The new rules also dictate that vaccine certificates will be required for entry into all hotels, restaurants, gyms and cultural events, while wearing face masks will be required for indoor public spaces. Those who visit hospital and care homes, bars, dance halls, and sports and cultural events will have to present negative COVID tests as well.
Beginning January 2, Portugal will hold "containment week," during which citizens will be required to undergo obligatory tele-work and bars will be forced to close. School holidays will also be extended to help prevent a post-holiday season COVID outbreak. Portugal saw a recent increase in new COVID infections in November, registering 3,773 new cases, the highest since June.
According to the CNN Health vaccine tracker, Portugal has fully vaccinated 87.8% of its population, placing it fifth among the countries and territories with the highest vaccination rates in the world. The first four most vaccinated countries are Gibraltar, Pitcairn, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates.
Pediatric COVID vaccines are set to arrive in Portugal on December 20. If childhood COVID vaccinations gain approval from the technical commission for vaccination, the government is looking to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in this age group. Prime Minister Costa said they already have the supply to cover 637,907 children who will be given pediatric doses of the Pfizer COVID vaccine, the Portugal News reported.
NOQ Report argued however, that Portugal is one of the "most heavily vaccinated nations in the world" for COVID and that based on White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci's narrative, the EU country should have defeated COVID by now given its high vaccination rates. Instead, it is declaring a "state of calamity" and is imposing harsher COVID restrictions.
The report also underscored how Portugal has already adopted Comirnaty, the FDA-approved Pfizer jab that is believed to be better than the emergency use one. This accounts for about 50% of vaccines in Portugal.
The report theorized that "the data seems to point to the likelihood that the 'vaccines' actually increase the rate of infection," instead of lowering it. This raises questions as to how the American government will respond to a possible spike in cases following the holidays.
