In April, 4.8 percent of those infected died from Covid-19, and in May, that number increased to 5.3 percent. Since then, the deadly effect has started to decrease and in September and October it reached 0.8 percent, that is, one person in a of 116 didn’t survive the disease.

Despite the encouraging data, the medical community is not very confident, and fears a second wave. “We have a high number of new cases, which is causing a huge pressure on primary care, but we still don’t have the effect of mortality”, said epidemiologist, Gustavo Tato Borges, to Correio da Manhã Newspaper, however he believes the alert that these numbers may be felt in the following weeks.

Doctor Ricardo Baptista Leite, said to the same newspaper: “nowadays, we are able to deal better with the disease. We have more knowledge, we know how to ventilate better, we have dexamethasone, a pill that can lower mortality among intensive care patients”.

Finally, the doctor confirms that we are better prepared than ever. “We have tools and organisation that we didn’t have 7 months ago and as the virus becomes endemic it is normal for it to become less aggressive,” said Baptista Leite. However, “it is still too early to talk about mitigating the virulence of Covid-19,” he explained, saying that it is still important to control spread to ensure the sustainable functioning of the National Health Service.