Restaurants closed until April

Government restrictions keeping cafés, bars and restaurants closed, except for food take-away, are likely to remain in place until Easter, and perhaps until the end of April.

This is according to the daily tabloid newspaper Correio da Manhã which reports that based on the downward curve of the pandemic, general lockdown will last until the end of February with some raising of restrictions from March, but lockdown continuing until the end of Easter.
Restaurants and cafés can currently only operate under a take-away regime and home deliveries and this is likely to remain in force until the end of April.
By the end of last year, Portugal’s restaurant sector was suffering losses of 75% and would have collapsed had the government now relaxed rules in the run-up to Christmas in December.
The Association of Retail Brands and Restaurants (AMRR) estimates that the two sectors, often interlinked because of the position of food courts in shopping centres, is responsible for 375,000 jobs in Portugal.
Despite government support, the sector forecasts that it will lose around 100,000 of these jobs by the end of the first quarter of 2021, with the sector said to be exhausted after 10 months of severe restrictions and insufficient financial support from the state.
“Restaurant owners say they will probably have to make between three and four staff redundant per establishment, which would mean around 100,000 in the first quarter,” warns PRO.VAR – Promote and Innovate the National Restaurant Sector.