"Between offers, purchases and loans, we will be in a position to double our ventilation capacity: 400 invasive ventilators were offered, many of which have already arrived at hospitals and others with expected delivery very soon," said António Lacerda Sales during the conference of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) on the evolution of the pandemic in Portugal.

"We are strengthening our ventilation capacity", he guaranteed, remembering that the most serious situations of covid-19 require intensive care and that many patients admitted to hospitals "need ventilators in their struggle for life".

There are currently 240 people in intensive care, according to data released today by the DGS, which point to more than nine thousand people infected with the cov-19, of which 1,042 are admitted to hospitals.

António Lacerda Sales also recalled the non-invasive ventilators granted as a loan and the 900 ventilators acquired by the Central Administration of the Health System: Some of the latter are already in Portugal and others “144 will arrive this weekend in the country”, he added .

The information was corroborated by João Gouveia, president of the Portuguese Society of Intensive Care and also coordinator of the DGS team in the area of ??intensive care for the planning and operation of these resources.

The person responsible for the DGS team explained that the material that will arrive during the week will be distributed to the different hospitals according to specific criteria, taking into account the needs, urgency and safety criteria “so that patients are treated in the best possible way. ”.

In addition to the acquisition of new materials, João Gouveia stressed during the press conference, which took place in Lisbon, that work has been carried out to recover material that was in need of some arrangements.

There was a “significant increase in the installed capacity” of intensive care medicine, with more professionals working with intensive care. "But it is obvious that material is also needed," recalled João Gouveia.

There will also be an increase in tests that, according to the Secretary of State for Health, will be distributed in order to guarantee a "balance between places with need and places with greater availability".

"Today, six thousand swabs will be distributed and another 400 thousand are still on order," announced the minister, explaining that 80 thousand will arrive on Friday and the rest will be delivered "in the coming weeks", in an attempt to respond to the "constraints of high demand ”.

Also, next week, “another 200 thousand tests should arrive in Portugal”: “Every day the shared health services are working to restore the testing kits and individual protection material”, he stressed.

In addition to the responses from the health system, the person responsible for the Ministry of Health once again called attention to the importance of maintaining the rules of social isolation, as a way of trying to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

"At a time when the state of emergency is renewed, it is important to keep the mesh tight to the new coronavirus, either through social restraint or by strengthening the response mechanisms of the health system, enabling it for the new phases of the epidemic", defended the secretary of state.