Portuguese municipalities receive UN recognition for their responses to Covid-19

This is evident from a brief which praises efforts from cities around the world

In a great example of a platform for sharing good practices, the United Nations (UN) published at the end of July, a policy brief entitled “Covid-19 in an Urban World”.  The reason behind this was the fact that the majority of coronavirus infections happen in the more crowded city environments.

Five Portuguese municipalities have the honour to be among the few European examples distinguished by the UN paper that highlighted innovative policies to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and which the international organization considers important to recommend for other cities to implement.

Portuguese cities are especially concerned about the socio-economic load of the pandemic

For example, Sintra was distinguished for having postponed all rental payments for social housing and its youth rental program, a measure that covered 1630 families and to which other initiatives were added, aimed mainly at the most vulnerable populations, combining epidemic control with social protection.

In addition to these measures, the municipality has created and formed multidisciplinary teams so that they can monitor, follow and provide the necessary social support to all cases identified with COVID -19. This social support covers personal protective equipment, housing and food support.

Similar measures, as it has been previously reported, were also implemented in the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

Likewise, the UN praised the innovative measures that were undertaken in Porto and Braga towards helping the local households and business and reducing their burdens from a fiscal point of view. Up to 60% of non-domestic users were exempted from paying fees for water supply, sanitation services and waste management in Porto.

The fifth Portuguese municipality to be mentioned in the policy brief was Vila Nova de Famalicão for having implemented a program for municipal support of rental payments through its Plan for Social and Economic Reactivation.