Questioned as to whether, given the evolution of Covid-19, especially in the Lisbon region, equates to a return to the state of emergency, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that "it is up to the government to evaluate" the situation, but argued that "that's not the question", while reiterating the numbers of recent days.

The head of state said that there is "a high number of cases" of infection, "higher on some days, above a thousand, more or less above, on other days below a thousand", but with "a stable number of deaths, low, without comparison with what was happening either months ago or a year ago".

"We have a number in intensive care units that has now stabilised: it was at 97, well below the limit that was talked about at the time, which was 200 or 245. We have a number of hospitalised patients that is at 400 or so: the number that is called the red line was between 1250 and 1500", he pointed out.

According to the President of the Republic, "so that's not the question - the question is: the Government, depending on the criteria that are adopted, will tell county by county what happens".

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa added that his position, contrary to a return to a state of emergency, "does not change" and that the numbers he pointed to as benchmarks when that legal framework was in force "are the ones that apply today".

When asked what he would do if the Government proposed a return to a state of emergency, the Head of State replied: "I have had occasion to say that we are a long way from the figures I was talking about when I renewed the state of emergency".

"I have already had occasion to say what my position was on the state of emergency," stressed the President of the Republic, when confronted with the possibility of Portugal "returning to confinement".

The President of the Republic argued that currently the number of new cases of infection with the new coronavirus "has no consequences on mortality, unlike what happened when the number was not only higher but as high as now" and also "has no consequences in the sense of strangulation of the National Health Service (NHS).