26 April 2020 | 18h34 - Updated on 26 April 2020 | 18h41

Luanda - The health authorities announced, on Sunday, the registration of another positive case.

According to the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, who was speaking at the usual press conference to update data from covid-19, this is a 44-year-old individual from Portugal, on 19 March.

With this, the number of infected people in the country rises to 26, all imported, including two dead, six recovered (with two medical discharges).

According to the minister, there are currently 712 people in institutional quarantine and 367 samples being processed.

Angola has observed, since 00:00 on Sunday (April 26), the third period of State of Emergency, which should remain in effect until 11:59 pm on May 10, adding 45 consecutive days of social isolation.

This is the second extension of the exceptional regime, subdivided into 15 days, each cycle, after the decree of its beginning, by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, on 25 March last, to contain the proliferation of covid-19, this time more lightened.

This new stage of the State of Emergency was decreed on Friday by the Head of State, after the favorable opinion of the plenary of the National Assembly, following, in this case, the first and second periods (from 27 March to 10 April, and from 11 to 25 of the same month).

On the basis of the extension of the measure, according to João Lourenço, in a message addressed to the Nation, there is the need to preserve the greater good of the human being, which is life.

As the President of the Republic said, Angola and Angolans today have the exact notion of how difficult it is to observe the confinement regime to which society is forced, by the threat of the new coronavirus, which has already infected 25 Angolans, with two dead.

In the framework of the extension, between restrictions and openings, the circulation and permanence of people on the public road is no longer permitted, and the use of masks is now mandatory for everyone who goes to the street or remains in public spaces.

Among the impositions, in these new 15 days of sanitary fence, there remains the obligation for workers assigned to provide essential services, in the public and private sector, to be accompanied by declarations and service passes.

The General Trade is released, but the reduction in the sale time of the informal and mobile markets is maintained, effected only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm. Collective religious classes and services continue to have no effect.

For this period, the State keeps bars and restaurants closed, however, authorizing inter-provincial movement in buses with up to 50% of capacity, for only commercial activities, with the exception of Luanda, for having positive cases.

Under the State of Emergency regime, the violation of the mandatory quarantine continues to constitute a crime of disobedience, in a period when the streets will be busier, judging by the lifting of part of the restrictions, especially in the civil service.