"Today we have an occupancy rate of around 54%, it has been between 50 and 54%, which reflects once again our capacity for expandability", said António Lacerda Sales at the daily update press conference about covid-19, held in Lisbon at the Ministry of Health.

According to the government official, between “30 to 33%” of intensive care beds are occupied by people infected with the new coronavirus, which shows that the occupancy rate of covid-19 in the ICUs has been gradually decreasing.

Regarding the mechanical ventilation capacity, Lacerda Sales stated that it was about 6.4 beds per 100 thousand inhabitants, but with "the effort that was developed", with the arrival of about 400 more fans, including donations, loans and central acquisition, increased to "713 beds, which is significant and reflects the level of expandability already interesting at this stage in terms of mechanical ventilation".

Stressing that the European average is around 11.5 beds per 100 thousand inhabitants, António Lacerda Sales defended: “it is necessary to improve and take advantage of this capacity, this renewal of our mechanical ventilation capacity to get closer and, if possible, surpass this European average”.

This increase in ventilatory capacity has "not only the objective" of increasing the capacity of the ICUs in this covid-19 phase, but also in the future with the fans that have already arrived and will arrive in the coming weeks, said the Secretary of State, adding that the fans that have already been paid for by Portugal are already at the Portuguese embassy in Beijing.