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The Ministers of Health and Presidency, Marta Temido and Mariana Vieira da Silva, will meet today, at the end of the day, with epidemiologists, to assess the evolution of the pandemic in Portugal.
António Costa made this announcement to journalists in Brussels and, after arriving in Lisbon this afternoon, he himself will meet with the ministers.
“Despite being here in the European Parliament, I have been in permanent contact with Portugal to see the evolution of the situation.”
The Prime Minister also confirmed that he has already spoken, this Wednesday, with the President of the Republic on the subject, and tomorrow there is a Council of Ministers and Costa admits that it may be necessary to “calibrate” the measures, promising “not to hesitate to take measures “that are” absolutely necessary to control the pandemic. “
“Today’s figures, as is known, are particularly dramatic and demonstrate the seriousness of the situation in the country. Obviously, it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about the measures we took last week.”
Asked about increased pressure to close schoolsAntónio Costa responded that the Government “cannot make decisions under pressure,” noting that “a few weeks ago the pressure was to open more restaurants.”
We have to make decisions based on what are the realities and effective dynamics ”.
Costa also said that the analyzes being carried out at the Doutor Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health “are decisive” for the analysis of this dynamic, due to the new strain, coming from the United Kingdom.
“If the prevalence of this strain is really relevant, then maybe we have to take steps that we didn’t expect to take,” he said, referring to school closings, for example.
Meanwhile, TVI had access to this study of INSA and Unilabs, in which the authors indicate that the current prevalence of this new variant in Portugal is 13.3%, but, at the beginning of February, it may reach 60% of the population.
However, the government source explained to the Lusa agency that the epidemiologists who are going to be present today are those who usually participate in the meetings at Infarmed.
