The national leader also explained that the present state of emergency is mainly focussed on border control, allowing the East-Timorese authorities being able to check who are coming in and going out from the country and to be prepared for new covid-19-cases.
‘The new state of emergency stops people from crossing the border,’ Xanana said in Manatuto, Tuesday 8 September 2020, explaining that this measure is necessary to be able to contain the virus.
At the same time he warned that ‘we have to be prepared that one day it might happen in our country. Then we must obey the rules which the health centres have formulated, with the agreement of the authorities and the police’ because ‘this disease is very dangerous, and very fast and hard to control.’
He repeated the measures that people have to take to prevent the spread of covid-19: wash your hands with soap, use a mask in public places, and keep social distancing.