National Parliament authorizes President of the Republic to renew the State of Emergency for another 30 days
Following the Government's request to the President of the Republic and the positive opinions of the Council of State and the Supreme Council for Defence and Security, the National Parliament today, May 28th, 2021, authorised the President of the Republic to renew the declaration of the state of emergency for the 14th time, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, between June 2nd, 2021, 12:00 am, and July 1st, 2021, 11:59 pm.
The draft law to authorise the renewal of the declaration of the state of emergency was approved with 35 votes in favour, 21 abstentions and no votes against.
In his speech, the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, said that this debate is taking place "at a particularly difficult and challenging time", "in which the accumulated number of infections caused by SARS-CoV-2 has risen to over six thousand, counted since the beginning of the pandemic, and almost three thousand cases remain classified as positive and active, in the different isolation centres".
He also explained that "the Government has proposed to the Head of State the renewal of the declaration of the state of emergency, given the fact that there have been 15 fatalities to date, and because the national and international health experts and specialists who have been consulted by the Government have agreed that the epidemiological situation will continue to deteriorate with the growth in the number of new cases of infection".
The Head of Government stated that "despite the dark clouds that hang over our near future, we cannot fail to fan the flame of hope, placing our trust in the swift execution of the National Vaccination Plan, already underway, which is currently being carried out at a good pace and which has already allowed for the immunisation of 65,000 (sixty-five thousand) fellow citizens".
The Prime Minister highlighted that "generalised vaccination of our population is, therefore, the best strategy to ensure the protection of the health and life of our People, but also the fastest way to return to normality, recover our economy and rebuild our country, with renewed spirit, determination and commitment".
The General Director of Health Services Delivery, Odete da Silva Viegas, also briefed the members of the National Parliament on the implementation of the vaccination plan against COVID-19. Since April 7th, a total of 76,683 people has already received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, nationwide. In Dili Municipality, 63,849 people have already received the first dose of the vaccine. In June, second doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 should start being administered. The General Director also reported the arrival, today, of another batch of 20,000 vaccines supplied by Australia and that more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country next week via the COVAX mechanism and also from Australia, with a total expected to exceed 100,000 vaccines.
