(AP) — Portugal’s parliament has voted to extend a state of emergency, allowing the government to impose the current national lockdown through March 1.
Internal Affairs Minister Eduardo Cabrita urged lawmakers to show “nerves of steel” by keeping the limits in place because the restrictive measures are paying dividends. A January surge of cases has ebbed amid a lockdown but deaths and pressure on hospitals remain high.
Also Thursday, Portugal started inoculating the country’s firefighters against COVID-19. The seven-day average of daily deaths in Portugal is the highest in the world, at 2.05 per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.
