António Lacerda Sales also indicated that about 60% of those admitted to the wards of national hospitals were also not vaccinated.

The government official was speaking to journalists in Coimbra, on the sidelines of the reception ceremony for the intern doctors of the Hospital and University Center of Coimbra (CHUC).

"This is the best indicator to make this call for vaccination", maintained Lacerda Sales, then comparing the current numbers with those of a year ago.

Currently, there are “less than a third in conventional admissions, less than a quarter in intensive care units and, fortunately, less than a fifth in terms of deaths”, he said.

The government official also called for testing, another way of isolating and fighting the pandemic, and highlighted the country's capacity for testing for Covid-19, through more than 1,400 participating pharmacies and 700 test laboratory posts.

“We have the testing capacity, we have tests, we have many institutions to test, so we want people to test themselves, because it is very important for us to control this health crisis,” he said.