By Andrea Hargraves 
Espinho’s weekly exhibition of non-food and perishable goods has been suspended next Monday as a result of the exceptional measures related to covid-19. The Chamber justifies that the number of new infections is “already alarming.”
A recent order from the autonomy set the closure of several services and activities until January 9. Among the measures announced was a ban on the sale of all non-food or perishable products and goods at the weekly fair in Espinho, one of the largest in the country.
To JN, the city council justifies that the numbers recorded daily, after Christmas, “were very high and show a clear and alarming deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the municipality”.
And last Wednesday, December 29, he recalls, “more positive cases were recorded compared to the week after Christmas last year.” “The numbers are already alarming and will justify, in and of themselves, the adoption of exceptional precautionary measures,” the self-regime argues.
An exhibition is an activity that brings a very large number of people from outside the municipality to Espinho “to a place where access control, testing or no guarantee of a maximum number of people per square meter cannot be guaranteed,” according to the municipality.
“We cannot ignore that Espinho has the second highest rate of aging in the entire Porto metropolitan area (…) and we were aware of the difficulties in being able to monitor positive cases and identify risky contacts.”
In response to a question about potential compensation for merchants, the Chamber reported that in addition to the normal exemption from fees corresponding to the period in which exhibition activity will be suspended, it has already expressed “the availability, after the height of this new wave, a dialogue with merchants to find support and compensation mechanisms.”
Revenda and Hairy Fair activities have also been suspended. All cultural facilities in Espinho municipality have also been closed; Sports equipment in the municipality of Espinho, excluding training periods and official competitions, among other measures.