“Right now, I think that the total removal of restrictions will be very unlikely to happen in 15 days because the phase we are in, is an increase in the pandemic”, said Miguel Guimarães.

The chairman of the OM said that, realising that the war between Ukraine and Russia is dominating the order of the day, with regard to the pandemic, “the aspect” that “concerns” him the most is “information”.

“War is, at the moment, the issue that most captures all international and national dimensions, but there are many people in Europe, and in Portugal, who are no longer complying with the rules that still exist and must be complied with [because of Covid-19]”, he said.

Strong message

Miguel Guimarães said that in order to achieve, by the end of this month, the objectives proposed by the Ministry of Health and the Directorate-General for Health “it was essential that people comply”, which is why he wanted to send a “strong and realistic message”.

“Lethality is relatively low, but it's only relatively low. The severity of the disease is decreasing, but the incidence is high. If people comply, we can return to so-called normality, but our normality will include new procedures”, he concluded.