Speaking to journalists at the Palace of Belém, in Lisbon, when asked if a renewal of the state of emergency is likely, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa replied that before this decision "there will be a new meeting of political leaders with specialists, epidemiologists", on Tuesday March 31, in the morning.

"And it will be considered, obviously, by me, in dialogue with the Prime Minister and, therefore, with the Government, and in dialogue with the parliament, exactly what is necessary for the next 14 days: if it is necessary, in addition to renew the state of emergency, add one more point or another, or not. This assessment will be made with the data until the beginning of next week, and then, if necessary, if the Assembly of the Republic authorises, until the 16th April, "he said.

Portugal is in a state of emergency from 00:00 on 19 March and until 23:59 on 02 April.

The President of the Republic was speaking to journalists after a videoconference meeting with the president of the Ordem dos Médicos, Miguel Guimarães, in which he said that an analysis had been made of today's numbers of infected people with the new coronavirus in Portugal and a comparison with the numbers over the past few days.

According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, "what is a fact is that there has been a decrease in the percentage of growth and that the curve has moved away from the curve that was expected and the curve that has been seen in other countries".

"But it is necessary to wait because, day by day, the elements are collected to verify that growth is constant or not. We'll see in the next few days, "he added.

Without wishing to directly address the content of the letter sent to the Prime Minister by the officials of the orders of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, the head of state stressed that Miguel Guimarães conveyed to him that there is "full availability" and "responsiveness" of doctors to deal with the current outbreak "even in a peak situation".

"This is a fight in which we are all united", he said.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected nearly 450,000 people worldwide, of whom more than 20,000 have died.

Portugal registers 60 deaths associated with covid-19 and 3,544 confirmed cases of infection, according to the bulletin released today by the Directorate-General for Health.