The president of the "Galo Negro" party passed through Lisbon last Wednesday on his way to Cidade da Praia (Cape Verde) to participate in a conference of the Movement for Democracy (MpD) and returned on Sunday also through the Portuguese capital.
"It was a huge surprise to me and to the secretary of International Relations with whom I traveled, to verify both at the entrance and at the exit [of Lisbon airport] that there was no control, no minimum temperature control, no minimum care. It surprised me," he told Lusa after a visit to the bishopric of Sumbe as part of the IX UNITA Parliamentary Days.
Adalberto da Costa Júnior noted that the increase in the number of infections in Portugal between last Wednesday and Sunday, "left the idea that perhaps it was not the best not to do this control" to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
He also pointed out that screenings have been made in Cape Verde and Luanda, particularly in terms of temperature measurement and said that "the problem of coronavirus should not be treated lightly," adding that "what is happening today in Italy should serve as an alert.
On Tuesday, the government admitted that Portugal could enter the list of countries with restrictions on entry - which currently includes China, Italy, South Korea and Iran - if the number of cases of infection continued to rise.
Something that, "if necessary, must be done," the president of UNITA defended.
"The levels of spread are very worrying and we know how weak our health services are," he said, stressing that "prevention is absolutely necessary".
Adalberto da Costa Júnior also spoke about the effects of the coronavirus on the economy, with the drastic fall in the price of oil, highlighting that the country is very heavily dependent on imports and oil, warning of the consequences on basic necessities.
"I hope that all these realities have been properly addressed at government level to avoid the deepening of the crisis that was no longer easy", he stressed.
The issue, which was discussed by the party's leadership about a week ago, will also be addressed during the parliamentary days.
This Wednesday morning, the South African government announced that one of the 13 cases of Covid-19 in the country is of a 40-year-old man who has returned from Portugal
The communiqué states that the 40-year-old man who visited Portugal, returned to South Africa last Saturday, 7 March, without specifying his nationality.
