Last Saturday, on 5 December, the Prime Minister, António Costa, said that the Government's strategy is to maintain the restrictions that are already in force until Christmas, but then they will reduce restrictions for Christmas.

In the case of Christmas and New Year, the measures already announced will be evaluated on 18 December to confirm the trend of improvement in the covid-19 pandemic.

In November, the executive had already divided the 278 municipalities in mainland into four groups, depending on the level of risk of transmission - moderate, high (between 240 and 480 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants), very high (between 480 and 960) and extremely high (more than 960). The lists can be consulted at www.covid19estamoson.gov.pt.

In these two weeks starting on 9 December, until 11:59 pm on 23 December, there is no ban on the circulation of municipalities across the mainland and the rules are maintained for extremely high-risk territories (35 municipalities) and very high (78), including a ban on driving on public roads between 13:00 and 05:00 on weekends.

These days, commercial establishments can only operate between 08:00 and 1:00 pm. The catering can work after that time, but only for take-away and deliveries.

In high-risk counties (which now stand at 92), the ban on driving on public roads continues until 23 December, with the general duty of curfew, between 11:00 pm and 5:0 am all days of the weak.

Commercial establishments must close until 22:00. Restaurants, cultural and sports places must close until 10:30 pm (catering establishments can operate until 01:00 am, but only for deliveries).

Since eight municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of ??Lisbon have now moved from very high to high level (Odivelas, Oeiras, Seixal, Setúbal, Sintra, Amadora, Cascais and Vila Franca de Xira), in the next two weekends they do not have the limitations of circulation in the afternoon.

The state of emergency measures applied on the mainland has not been replicated in Madeira and the Azores, where regional executives have the autonomy to apply restrictions.