At a press conference to monitor the pandemic at the Ministry of Health, EM Lisbon, Jamila Madeira indicated that, in the supplementary budget and in the economic and social stability programme, the “necessary reinforcement” in the intensive care units that was concluded was needed in the past few months.

There will also be reinforcements in the Public Health sector for "traceability and monitoring" and an increase in laboratory capacity so that test results arrive more quickly, she said.

Jamila Madeira added that “the strategic reserve” of individual protection equipment and medicines is being strengthened at central level and by local health units and regional health administrations.

"The Government is reinforcing all the dynamics installed on the ground and will make them available next autumn / winter season", she declared.

The director-general of Health, Graça Freitas, said that Portugal is looking at the epidemiological situation of Australia, the "big radar" of the southern hemisphere that is now in its winter to predict what may happen in the cold months in Europe.

“They had a first wave [of covid-19], managed to lower it and now face a second wave symmetrical to the first”, she said.