Let’s have a look at Portugal to monitor the situation even of that important hub for the footwear production. A way to keep in touch with the international market situation that we are pursuing also thanks to the #howareyou initiative.
The Portuguese situation is outlined by João Maia, general manager of APICCAPS:

“Portugal registered the first cases of people with Covid-19 in early March. Meanwhile, the number of cases has significantly increased and yesterday (March 24) national health authorities confirmed that we have a total of 2,362 cases and 33 deaths.

National health authorities continue to recommend social distancing and, where possible, people already work from home, mainly those in the service segment. Schools closed on Friday, March 13 and should remain so until at least early April. The government has announced several measures to help the economy, SMEs and workers who need to stay home to take care of their children.

Last week, the President of the Republic announced to declare the state of emergency. Since then, we have seen a wider closing down of commercial spaces (including clothing and shoe stores or coffee shops, for example); the exception are those that sell essential goods, such as supermarkets or pharmacies.

Manufacturing companies are working, but the are receiving some order cancellations and are facing slight difficulties in sourcing raw materials from abroad, especially because the situation in Italy has worsened and all non-essential manufacturing activities have shut down. Consequently, a constant assessment of the situation is carried out inside the factories and, according to a quick survey conducted by APICCAPS among its members, 35% of the interviewees are considering to suspend business activities next week to try to prevent the spread of the virus”.