This warning was made by António Costa in a speech at the end of a presentation of the Simplex 20-21 programme, at the Pavilhão do Conhecimento, in Parque das Nações, in Lisbon, during a session attended by ten ministers from the current Government.

“There is one thing we know: We cannot repeat the confinement that we had to impose during the period of the state of emergency and in the following weeks, because society, families and people will not handle going through the same again”, stated António Costa.

When considering facing a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the executive leader said that work to adapt society “has to be done now, because there is still some time to avoid the worst” in the autumn and winter.

“Time is short, and probably we will not be able to do everything, but we really have to get things done and do the maximum that we can to ensure the continuity of the functioning of society, namely schools, companies and public administration services, even in conditions that could be more adverse than the ones we experienced in March. We have to accelerate this process”, reinforced António Costa.

António Costa underlined that science does not prove that next autumn or winter there will be no “time as difficult as those experienced in the beginning of March in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“Science is telling us nothing, we only know that our intuition tells us that in winter there is usually less immunity. It is no coincidence that in the winter there are more patients than in summer, there is more flu than in summer. We must hope for the best, but we have to prepare for the worst with what we already know”, he insisted.

The Prime Minister recognised that society, in general, is more educated with “masks, alcohol gel, respiratory etiquette and social distancing”.
“All services and companies are well organised to ensure these conditions. We need to use the available European resources we have to accelerate and raise the ambition of what we can and should do. This is another time trial that is running and that we cannot lose”, he added.
Bruno Santos