Society

Celebrations of São João have been called off in Porto due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic; as such, Porto City Hall put in place several measures to prevent the gathering and moving around of people in Porto.

The Municipal Executive unanimously adopted the extension of free ride transit, the existing "Porto.13-15" to children up to 18 years old that reside in Porto. The investment by the Municipality is budgeted at 1.2 million euros per year, and it represents an addition of 90 thousand euros per month regarding the first year of application of that measure. In return for this increase, Porto City Hall will only pay the rides actually taken by free transit users (aka Andante).

The Municipal Executive has approved, this morning, the Municipal Strategy for Homeless people 2020-2023, during a private meeting. Long-term housing, an increase in the number of available beds at the Temporary Reception Shelter Joaquim Urbano, the opening of two additional solidarity restaurants, namely in Boavista and downtown, as well as the strengthening of capacity building and social and professional integration programmes are amongst the priorities.

Porto Municipal Theatre (TMP) features an online cycle to debate the future of performing arts during and after the pandemic. The cycle "Nada ficou no lugar, e agora?" features the second talk happens on 25th June, and the theme is "Management: challenges in a pandemic world"The talk starts at 6.30pm and it is streamed live on TMP's Facebook.

The mural painting by Vhils in Porto pays tribute to health professionals. It shows faces covered by face masks. The eyes are how we all communicate, after all, these days and these eyes show us courage and determination. The mural is located in the entrance to the visits wing of the São João Hospital in Porto.

A new urbanism is on the way in Porto, and Saturday was the first day that pedestrians got to enjoy urban car free zones. From 8am on 20th June to 8pm on 21st June, public space was just that, in sixteen streets in Downtown Porto and in the Historic Centre of the city. Public thoroughfares invited to added quality of life, and this demand for city districts to be made pedestrian is ever more relevant under the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Porto Book Fair is back to the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal, from 28th August to 13th September. The Fair registered 68 applications of interest, which means that over 80 publishing entities, namely publishers, booksellers, distributors and used bookstores will participate in the fair, totalling 120 stands.

Street celebrations are cancelled, so this year the way to party is staying at home, with all the fun and merriment that such moments can also bring; to brighten moods all night long, Rádio Festival ensures a special broadcasting that will go from the early morning of the 23rd June till the first light of day of the 24th June.

Starting tomorrow, 20th June, there will be sixteen streets in Porto Downtown area and Porto Historic centre that will be transformed into temporary pedestrian areas, between 8am on Saturdays and 8pm on Sundays. Alongside the municipal plan to regain public space, there is a pilot project of 88 areas for the sharing of soft mobility means of transport.

In the first 15 days of June alone, over 1200 people were tested in Porto. This information was indicated to Porto.pt by ARS Norte, which demonstrates that the fact that there are no new positive Covid-19 cases in Porto is not the result of the shortage of test performing but that health authorities, hospitals, institutions the Municipality and mostly citizens were able to stop the outbreak of the pandemic, for the time being, by means of active control measures.