In an interview with the program “Você na Tv”, on TVI, António Costa stated that “it would be giving the wrong signal to the country to withdraw the state of emergency”.

“We cannot yet start to alleviate [the containment measures], on the contrary”, he pointed out, saying that “this is the most difficult moment” because “fatigue is accumulating”, but it is necessary not to lose focus.

In António Costa's view, the “Easter season is critical” and the five days in which circulation between municipalities is restricted (between Thursday and Monday) “will be extremely important”.

"It is fundamental to be very restrained, very disciplined" in measures to contain the covid-19 pandemic, in order to be able to anticipate the lifting of the constraints imposed by the Government, he pointed out.

Costa also advocated that he believes that “there will surely be a new wave of covid-19 in the winter.

The head of government also indicated that the disease caused by the new coronavirus has not yet been tested because it has no symptoms and has not been in contact with people at risk.

Affirming that “it is true” that tests are lacking, António Costa justified that this lack occurs because “there are not enough tests on a global scale” to be acquired by countries, the same being true for swabs, for example.

"Nothing was produced on a global scale for a pandemic of this dimension", he added, noting that Portugal entered the same "struggle in which the whole world is in a position to buy" these materials.

Therefore, he rejected "feeding this controversy between what is essential to have, what is necessary to have and what people think they have to have".

As for ventilators, those being purchased will "allow the duplicatation" of the current capacity of the National Health Service, he guaranteed.

Asked about how he greeted the Minister of Education on Thursday, with a handshake, António Costa admitted that it was “a failure”, but he considered that it shows that he is human.