The announcement was made by the Minister of State and Head of the Civil House of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, who considered the markets as "one of the main Achilles heels" during the first 15 days of a state of emergency in Angola to contain the spread of the covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, the markets can only be held three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, between 6am and 1pm.
The same timetables and days will be valid for street sales.
On the remaining days, it is intended that the bodies managing these spaces take the opportunity to better organize the markets, promoting social distance between buyers and sellers, and for disinfection actions, stressed Adão de Almeida.
Adão de Almeida stressed that the generic principles of functioning of informal and formal markets are maintained, given the potential for contagion of this type of spaces, with limitations in terms of weekdays.
Another novelty for the next 15 days is the obligation of any solidarity action to be developed through the local administration bodies of the State, announced the same responsible.
Maritime navigation will also be suspended for recreational and leisure purposes, which was not contemplated in the previous rules.
Religious cults, sporting competitions, schools, universities, non-food outlets, bars and restaurants will continue to be suspended, and there will also be limitations on public transport, which is reduced to minimum services and with limited capacity.
This will also apply to the transport of citizens on the two exceptional days (11 and 12 April) when citizens are allowed to cross the provincial health fence to return to their homes.
The Minister explained that the updating of some rules resulted "from experience and learning" of these days, but serves mainly to "safeguard the good of life" by limiting some rights, but always for the benefit of the citizens.
The state of emergency was declared on 27 March for 15 days, until 11.59pm on 11 April, and was extended for another 15 days on Thursday.
During these days, Angola has continued to record many cases of disobedience to the rules of the state of emergency, which imposes restrictions on the movement of people and social distancing.
Angola has already registered two deaths out of a total of 19 positive cases of covid-19, and is fulfilling the first phase of the state of emergency, which ended at 11.59pm on 11 April.
