“Portugal has a very high vaccination coverage and the number of cases is much lower than it was during this pandemic. The mortality rate is also very low, despite the fact that each of these deaths is tragic”, said the technical head of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the pandemic.

In a press conference, Maria Van Kerkhove stressed that the main objective of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is to prevent serious cases of covid-19 and deaths, which is happening in countries that have high vaccination rates.

“The Covid-19 vaccines being used are incredibly effective at preventing hospitalisations and the need for people to go to intensive care units. What we see in Portugal, as well as in many countries, is this happening. The data supports this. This is good news”, said the epidemiologist.

Despite this, Maria Van Kerkhove warned that "vaccines alone are not enough to end the pandemic", reiterating that the WHO continues to "strongly advise" the adoption of other measures, such as social distancing, the use of masks and the ventilation of indoor spaces, as a way to prevent the spread of infections.

"We have several tools that are currently available, which can not only save lives, but also reduce the transmission" of the virus, assured the technical responsible for the WHO, who admitted that the number of infections in Europe increases with the arrival of winter.

“Europe has seen an increase in cases over the past five weeks and an increase in deaths over the past six weeks,” said Maria Van Kerkhove.