Today is Wednesday, the 18th of March, 2020.
Here, in Portugal, the government is tightening its response to the coronavirus. The above photo was taken around noon on the main road not far from the place where we are staying. All flights out of Europe will be suspended as of midnight tonight, with Portugal making exceptions for countries with a ‘strong Portuguese presence’ (Canada, the United States, Venezuela, South Africa, Brazil and the so-called PALOP countries of Africa).
With Britain effectively locked-out of these new measures due to Brexit, it means any Briton wanting to get out will have to leave by midnight tonight.
It is expected that the Portuguese government will declare a national state of emergency when the prime minister speaks at 8:00 PM tonight.
We've heard word from a reliable source that the airport at Faro, the nearest international airport here in the Algarve will be closed effective tomorrow. Canadians booked on Air Transit weekly flights out of Faro will now have to fly out of Lisbon. It is not yet clear if all scheduled flights from Faro will now just depart from Lisbon. This action seems to parallel the Canadian government's decision to limit international arrivals to four Canadian airports during this period.