Director-General of Health Graça Freitas highlights that parties are still prohibited, but nothing “prevents some beautiful sardines”

The director-general of health defended today that parties and festivals as we have known them in previous years cannot be held, but can in a different way from other years as long as comply with rules established to minimize the spread of the novel coronavirus.

During a daily press conference to update information on national COVID-19 infection information, Graça Freitas stated that “nothing prevents a good party outdoors with music, accompanied by a grill and some beautiful sardines”. However, she stressed that it is still necessary to comply with distancing rules: “It is a new normality. Things can be done, but with rules”.

Freitas said that, at this moment, “outdoor spaces with many people” are already working, since when they comply with the rules “the risk is minimal”, but there are also spaces where “the risks are too many”.

On Wednesday, the director-general said that the authorities would guarantee that unruly festivals and large parties would not be held, even if they were promoted informally by establishments with a license to operate.

The justification for this ban is related to “the rules of social distancing”, which has prevented gatherings, even private ones that “have been problematic points in recent weeks”, she said.

Graça Freitas concluded: “A cafe can have a terrace, a terrace can have a grill, the grill can have sardines, this does not prevent everyone from following the rules, it will just have to be different from previous years”.