“I want to make it clear that there is no prohibition on sharing information. Yes, there is a clear appeal to all entities that make up the Ministry of Health, especially local and regional health authorities, to focus on sending timely and consistent information to the national level. Parcel bulletins can cause fragmented analysis. In addition, due to the size of some data, the possibility of violation of statistical confidentiality ”, said Marta Temido.

The minister's clarification, at the daily press conference of the Directorate-General for Health, comes after the Espinho City Council announced on Friday that it will not waive the right to inform the population on a daily basis about the local epidemiological evolution of the covid pandemic, criticizing instructions from the Ministry of Health to the contrary.

The decision of this municipality in the district of Aveiro followed the fact that, also on Friday, the regional administrations of the tutelage communicated to the public health delegates of each municipality that they were forbidden from daily disclosure of local statistics and that they should restrict the data made available by the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) - which have been less updated than those of the municipalities and, according to the municipality, even "highly discrepant".