The Regional Government will announce today the opening, as of Monday, of most of the economic activities. In practice, restaurants and the like, gymnasiums and all establishments that fail to apply strict measures to reduce customers, distance and hygiene are left out.
As it was possible to know, there will be rules that, in general, reduce the capacity of the establishments to one third and the use of a community mask is mandatory for all customers.
Miguel Albuquerque scheduled a press conference for 1 pm and is expected to announce the regulated opening of general trade, including hairdressers and the like, services and shopping centers.
The Regional Government team that is coordinating the reopening process met, this week, with the directorates of the three largest shopping centers – Forum Madeira, La Vie and Madeira Shopping – and the operating rules were defined. The shopping centers will have separate entrances and exits, the use of a community mask will be mandatory, circulation will have rules, respecting a maximum of four people per 100 square meters. The entrance to the stores will be the same as that of high street retailers, with a reduction in service and capacity for one third. Parking lots will also be reduced by a third.
All circulation in shopping centers will have to be monitored by security and the distances between people guaranteed.
In the hairdressers, a working model will be adopted that had already been defended by the national association of the sector. The capacity will be reduced to one third – a room with nine chairs can only have three in operation – it will be mandatory to use a mask or visor and protection of hands and arms.
In services, the rules will be identical, with an entry control similar to what is already being adopted by banks.
The objective of the Regional Government is to try to relaunch economic activity, but always remembering that this opening is made under the measures of containment and that it is still necessary to reduce the number of people leaving home only to the essentials.
These measures to reopen economic activities take effect Monday. The national state of emergency ends on Saturday and today Prime Minister António Costa is also expected to announce which sectors are open.
With the end of the state of emergency, the Autonomous Regions are once again able to adopt their own contingency plans.