The Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Monday reopened its shopping centers and large commercial stores, as it entered the third phase of deconfinement, which was postponed for two weeks amid new outbreaks, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Antonio Costa and other senior government officials attended various activities, to give confidence in reactivating the economy and assure the sanitary measures were taken as stipulated by the health authorities.
Customers were greeted with applause by the merchants and with musical performances, but many had to queue up for several minutes to enter big stores.
Two weeks ago, the government decided to postpone the reopening of large commercial establishments in Greater Lisbon due to the greater number of infected people compared to the rest of the country.
Portugal recorded three deaths of COVID-19 and 346 new infections --300 in Greater Lisbon -- in the last 24 hours, bringing the totals to 1,520 fatalities and 37,036 cases.