Portugal's capital, Lisbon, is cordoned off.
The reason is the rapidly increasing infections with the delta variant.
For two and a half days, residents are only allowed to leave the city for good reason.
Lisbon (dpa) - Lisbon is sealed off for around two and a half days due to a worrying increase in corona infection cases.
From afternoon (1600 CEST) to Monday morning (0600 CEST), the 2.8 million residents of the Portuguese capital are only allowed to leave the greater Lisbon area for good reason, as the government announced on Thursday.
Foreigners will only be allowed to enter in exceptional cases.
Highest number of new infections since February
With 928 new infections within 24 hours, Lisbon recorded its highest value since February 19 on Thursday.
That was around 75 percent of all cases registered in Portugal (1233).
However, only around 27 percent of all 10.3 million citizens of Portugal live in the “Area Metropolitana” of Lisbon.
In Lisbon, the delta variant of the corona virus, which was first discovered in India, is currently spreading relatively strongly, said Presidential Minister Mariana Vieira da Silva.
"It is not easy to take such measures, but we thought they were essential so that the current situation in Lisbon does not spread to the whole country," she said.
The former hotspot Portugal had successfully fought against Corona in winter and temporarily had the lowest values in Europe in spring.
The state of emergency to contain the pandemic therefore ended on May 1 after five and a half months.
However, the nationwide 14-day incidence rose from 55 to 87 within a few weeks, according to the EU authority ECDC.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210618-99-43588 / 2
Communication from the Portuguese government
