"My position is the same, it is up to me to declare the state of emergency, and I see no reason to retreat back to the state of emergency, because of what I have said several times before: the number of deaths, number of patients care intensive and the number of those hospitalised, all remain far, far below the limit that justifies the state of emergency”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

On Thursday, the Council of Ministers announced a ban on movement to and from the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) on weekends, from 15:00 on Friday, due to the increase in Covid-19 in this area.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that “the Government acted in accordance with its competence”, with the Constitution and the law was “very clear”: “It is up to the Government to manage in a time when there is no state of emergency”.

The minister highlighted that this is a new measure to control the pandemic, which "is neither easy nor desired by anyone, but it is necessary" to contain the worsening incidence of the disease in this region, especially with the prevalence of the "delta" variant of coronavirus.