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 Permanent Commission of National Parliament, authorised, today, July 27th, 2021, the President of the Republic to renew the declaration of the state of emergency for the sixteenth time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, between 12:00 a.m., August 1st, 2021 and 11:59 p.m., August 30th, 2021.
The draft law to authorise the renewal of the declaration of the state of emergency was approved with 18 votes in favour, 13 abstentions and zero votes against. As provided for in the Regime of the state of siege and the state of emergency, the authorization approved by the Permanent Commission of National Parliament, will soon be confirmed by the Plenary of the National Parliament.
After the publication of the Presidential Decree, the Government, through the Council of Ministers, will approve the implementation measures of the declaration of the state of emergency, that will be in force from August 1st.
In the message addressed to the National Parliament, the President of the Republic, Francisco Guterres Lú Olo, stated that “given that the determining causes that justified the declaration of the state of emergency and its renewals, still in force, remain, it becomes absolutely necessary, in order to protect public health, a renewal for an equal period”. “We will therefore have to give the Government, for the imperative of protecting public health, adequate mechanisms for epidemiological surveillance, in order to prevent and reduce the opportunities for importation and spread of the said virus into national territory.”
The Head of State also stressed out that COVID-19 “can affect anyone, and we never know when and at what level it can affect us”, “COVID-19 is not a simple flu,” and “it does not only affect older people, it does not only affect people with comorbidities or with risk factors”.
At the opening of the debate in the National Parliament, the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, representing the Prime Minister, highlighted the “new cycle of hope” that began with the arrival, “in the month of April 2021,” of the first batch of vaccines provided by the COVAX System” which gave rise to “a new cycle in the prevention, management and combat of the COVID-19 Pandemic in National Territory”.
This cycle of hope allows the Government to “plan the recovery, project the measures, and achieve the results expected from the implementation of the Economic Recovery Plan”.
The Minister also stated that “we are on the right track, at a good pace, to achieve in the short term the return to normality that we so much hope and desire” and added that “there are currently some signs that indicate that it is possible to progressively resume economic and social activities”.
“In order for the cycle of hope to become sustainable over time, thus preventing the spread and community transmission of new, potentially more contagious or deadly variants”, there is a need for “continued and permanent vigilance that requires us to maintain a strong and active system of prevention, control and management of COVID-19, capable of triggering measures quickly and efficiently when new outbreaks of the disease are detected”.