During the “Pilgrimage to Fatima 2021 - Police Always Present” operation, the PSP will carry out many actions to following pilgrims and “promote safe coexistence between normal road traffic and the pedestrian circulation of groups of pilgrims and also to raise awareness and inform about the safest forms of pedestrian circulation in groups and with support vehicles”.

The PSP will also promote the adoption of appropriate road safety behaviours and the routes usually used by pilgrims will also be especially targeted at controlling the speed of car traffic, the police said in a statement.

In the note, the PSP advises pilgrims, especially when circulating in an urban context, to wear light clothes and retro-reflective materials to go for walks or on the shoulders, also to walk in the opposite direction to traffic and to avoid the use of mobile phones and headphones.

He also recommends that, as a group, pilgrims walk in a single line and that from dusk until sunrise, the first in line should carry a flashlight with white light pointed at the ground (so as not to dazzle drivers) and, last, a red light.

The pilgrimage celebrations of 12 and 13 May at the Sanctuary of Fátima will have a limit of 7,500 people. The Sanctuary considers that the pandemic "does not yet offer guarantees" to receive "without reservation" all the faithful.