“July was the month with the highest number of tests. A total of 431,178 tests. The daily average was 13,909, the highest rate of tests ever carried out,” said the minister, at a press conference of the Directorate-General to assess the epidemiological situation in the country.

The Secretary of State highlighted an “increase in tests carried out by the National Health Service (SNS)”, which “is today about 50 percent of the total.”

At the press conference, Jamila Madeira also stressed the “confidence in the work on the ground that needs to be continued” and the “instruments of innovation” used in the “Portuguese response” to the pandemic.

On 10 July, the Minister of Health, Marta Temido, revealed that, since March, the country has carried out around 1.3 million tests for the covid-19.

Marta Temido stated that Portugal was the “fifth country in the European Union that carries out the most tests.”

The minister added that in April, there was a daily average of 11,500 tests, that in May the average was 13,000 tests and that in June it was 11,700 tests.