According to information from the Lisbon Municipal Civil Protection councilor, Carlos Castro, to journalists at the scene, the withdrawal operation “of about two hundred people started at 7:00 am, after a positive case was detected”.

According to the municipal official, this is an operation that involves several entities in the health and support sectors for immigrants and refugees, such as the Foreigners and Borders Service, the High Commissioner for Migration and the Portuguese Council for Refugees.

"These people are being removed and sent to a place where they will be kept in isolation and where they will be subjected to tests whose results arrive in five / six hours", he explained, adding that the hostel "when it is completely free of people will be decontaminated" .

According to Carlos Castro, it is predicted that “at the end of the day, anyone who is negative can return to the hostel”, while another answer will be found for cases that are positive, he stressed.

Also according to the councilor for Civil Protection, there are “more than 100 people working for a quick response in articulation and complementarity”.

On the page of the National Civil Protection Emergency Authority, the occurrence was marked by 06:24, mentioning that 24 operational and 10 terrestrial means are on site.

According to the commander of Lisbon's Sapadores Firefighters, Tiago Lopes, only when the hostel is "totally empty" will the space be disinfected, "from the top to the bottom".