“The Government, of course, regrets the decision, which is not based on facts and data that are known and public”, he said.

The head of Portuguese diplomacy said that he had fulfilled the agreement with the British government, namely in respect of five criteria in which the Portuguese epidemiological situation is considered to be “very positive”: testing capacity, lethality rate, reproduction rate, system response capacity and number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

“The British authorities were kind enough to inform us of the decision, but were unable to explain the scientific and technical fundamentals of the decision made,” stated Augusto Santos Silva.

If you disagree with the decision of the UK Government to continue to leave Portugal off the air bridge list, then click here to find details on how to sign a petition and lobby UK ministers.

WHO and Worldometer Data for each country for confirmed cases per week.

Portugal

Week ending 29/6/20 - 2380 cases

Week ending 6//7/20 - 2652 cases

Week ending 13/7/20 - 2169 cases

Week ending 20/7/20 - 760 cases

On 760 cases that is roughly 7.6 per 100,000 infection rate.

The Algarve is roughly 3 per 100,000 now.

Spain

Week ending 29/6/20 - 2589 cases

Week ending 6//7/20 - 4590 cases

Week ending 13/7/20 - 9016 cases

Week ending 20/7/20 - 8865 cases

On 8865 cases that is roughly 18.7 per 100,000 infection rate.

England

The ONS last figures for England is estimated at 2,800 new cases per day or 19,600 per week for the week ending 20/7/20 and also states that the current infection rate is 5.2 per 100,000.

As such the Algarve is less than England and the whole of Portugal is just above England with the most telling factor being that Spain is on and Portugal off even though Spain has a rising infection rate over the last three weeks and Portugal has declined.

As such Portugal is now 7.6 per 100,000 and Spain is 18.7 per 100,000 infection rate.