Regarding the evolution of the epidemiological situation in Portugal, the leader of the executive said that "a moment should be reached when the number of new cases per day will stop rising, losing strength in the daily variation".

"But only after that will we start to lower the number of people who need to be admitted to hospital. And only after that will we start to lower the number of deaths per day. So there's no point in feeding the illusion that we're not facing the worst moment. We will continue to face the worst moment even in the coming weeks", warned the Prime Minister.

Former PSD leader José Pacheco Pereira criticised the erratic nature of the government's measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, and António Costa was even asked what he would have done differently had he known what he knows today about the disease.

"Looking now, if we had known in good time of the existence of the English variant [of the new coronavirus], surely the picture of the measures that were defined for Christmas would have been different. Surely the restrictions that came into force at the beginning of January would have come into force probably as early as 26 December", he said.