At the daily press conference held at the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) for the dissemination of the covid-19 epidemiological bulletin, António Lacerda Sales stated that 66 fans arrived in Portugal on Sunday from China and that they will be “distributed immediately throughout the country".

According to the Secretary of State, 40 ventilators will be in the North and Centre and the remaining 23 will be distributed by units in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, Alentejo and Algarve.

This regional breakdown, he explained, is done "according to the distribution criteria defined by the monitoring committee for the national response in intensive care medicine", which is always done fairly.

The official also said that 63 of the fans were acquired by the central administration of health systems and the other three by the municipalities.

"Portugal registers a 54 percent occupancy rate in an intensive care unit", stressed the Secretary of State.

These 66 ventilators are part of the 508 that Portugal bought from China to strengthen the capacity of the National Health Service in intensive care.