From 2:30pm, at the official residence, in São Bento, the prime minister begins by receiving the PSD, followed by Bloco de Esquerda and PCP - hearings lasting an hour. Then, he meets with the CDS (45 minutes) and, with half an hour intervals, the PAN, the ENP, the Chega, the Liberal Initiative and the PS.

Earlier, at 10:00am, António Costa participates in the extraordinary meeting of the Permanent Commission for Social Consultation, to assess the impact of support measures related to the crisis caused by the pandemic covid-19.

António Costa announced that he would receive political parties during the biweekly debate in parliament, on the 22nd, adding that the new round of hearings would focus on the "reopening schedule, in a strategy of gradual and progressive deflation, in which the school component it will obviously not be absent".

This Tuesday, 28 April, at the end of the meeting with an epidemiologist, at Infarmed, in Lisbon, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, announced that the state of emergency will end at midnight on 2 May and that Portugal will enter in an opening phase by small steps.

"The state of emergency will cease to be in force after this second renewal on the 2nd at midnight. It is hoped that it will not be necessary in the future to resort to the state of emergency again. If necessary, this will be considered," said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

At the end of last week, in declarations to journalists, António Costa said that the measures to lift restrictions on economic activity, or to restart the face-to-face classes in the 11th and 12th years, will be announced this Thursday, 30 April, after the Council meeting of Ministers.

With the end of the state of emergency, it is considered likely that the Government will resort to declaring the situation of public calamity.

According to the Civil Protection Bases Law, the Council of Ministers resolution that decrees the situation of calamity can establish "limits or constraints on the movement or permanence of people, other living beings or vehicles", as well as "sanitary and safety".

In Paços de Ferreira, on Monday, 27 April, António Costa defended that "both the Basic Law for Civil Protection and the Public Health Law, give the State the necessary instruments to be able to act" in the fight against the pandemic of covid-19.

"I think that the consensus that exists is that we can, at this moment, go down a level, since the full normality of our life will only come back when there is a vaccine, and that will not happen in less than a year or a year and a half," he said.

Regarding the timetable for the return to economic activity, the Prime Minister said that this Thursday, 30 April, it will be known which commercial sectors will resume the activity with security standards on 4 and 18 May and 1 June.

According to António Costa, "the confinement release rules will come into force every 15 days, the first on 4 May, the second on 18 May and others on 1 June", although they do not yet include all sectors of activity.

"Therefore, [on Thursday] after the Council of Ministers, we will announce the activities that the 4th, the 18th or the 1st of June will be able to resume - and always with restrictions on capacity and in terms of protection of individual equipment, whether for those who are to serve, or in some cases for customers", he stressed.

António Costa added that the executive's objective, with this phased reopening calendar, "is to measure the impacts of the previous measure every 15 days, seeing if it is possible or not to take another step" in terms of lifting restrictions.