When asked by journalists about the possibility of easing the wearing of facemasks, the President of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, remarked that mask wearing is mandatory, and will remain so. He went on to say that this is not the time to take risks especially as the new variants are highly contagious and not that well understood, even by scientists, and that under the current circumstances the rules will remain in place, especially as one outbreak could ruin all the hard work done over the last fifteen months.
Furthermore, he has said that with the pandemic situation in Portugal and across Europe he will not hesitate to reverse his decision on exchanging PCR tests for Rapid Antigen Tests (TRAg).
Looking at the comments section of the articles, many residents have expressed their concern at the number of tourists are seen to be flouting the mask wearing rules, and gathering in large numbers and that no one is doing anything to curb the situation. As one person said, there cannot be one rule for Madeiran’s and a completely different one for tourists.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
