With the negative test or the vaccination certificate in hand the Portuguese

Her government announced new measures today Portugal, in its effort to control the alarming increase in Covid-19 cases.

From now on, those who want to stay in hotels must have a negative test for the new one coronavirus or demonstrate a vaccination or recovery certificate.

In restaurants, in municipalities where the risk of transmitting the disease is high, those who want to dine indoors should also show the same certificates, but only on Friday night and throughout the weekend, a government spokeswoman said. Mariana Vieira da Silva in a press conference she gave. The measure will apply to 60 municipalities, including the capital Lisbon and Porto.

«For a long time, the only measure at our disposal was to limit economic activitySaid da Silva. “With digital certification and test availability, we have other ways to guarantee safety,” he added.

Tourists and restaurant customers can use the EU Digital Certificate. Antigen tests will also be accepted (rapid), which can even be done in hotels, at check-in.

The Portuguese restaurant association, however, commented that “there were already too many rules and restrictions” and the new measures could deter customers.

With the new measures, however, the restaurants will reopen from this weekend in the high-risk areas, where the previous two weekends were forced to remain closed.

The curfew, already in place in 45 municipalities, will be extended to another 15, including Faro, the largest city in the popular Algarve tourist district. Today in Portugal, a country of 10 million people, more than 3,000 cases of Covid-19 have been reported. Almost 90% of new cases involve the most contagious Delta variant and are found among young, unvaccinated people.