"At this moment, we have travelled the whole country to survey the situation and what we know is that the monitoring of homes is being much better than it was initially," admitted Graça Freitas.

During the daily press conference to update information on the pandemic in Portugal, the director-general said that the management entities of nursing homes currently have the support of the municipalities, social security, civil protection and local health authorities to resolve possible difficulties, including the lack of health professionals.

"If the home, for whatever reason, does not have enough medical and nursing staff to support the users who are there, that home is supported by the grouping of health centres in the area where it is located," said Graça Freitas.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, several homes have complained about the lack of support from the authorities, namely due to the lack of conditions to ensure compliance with the preventive measures and procedures imposed by the Directorate-General for Health, which oblige, for example, isolation from all users infected or suspected of infection.

Regarding the availability of health professionals, the Secretary of State for Health, António Sales, added that, in the context of the pandemic, more than 1,800 professionals have already been hired, including doctors, nurses and operational assistants, on a temporary basis.