Portugal is expected to continue with the current level of lockdown until mid March, the Health Minister said today, indicating that the country continues to have an "extremely high incidence" of new cases of infection by the new coronavirus.

"It is quite evident that the current lockdown has to be prolonged for longer and, already during the month of February, and then subject to an evaluation, but probably for a period that experts today estimated as 60 days from its beginning," said Marta Temido, after a virtual meeting with experts at Infarmed in Lisbon. The level Portugal needs to reach is to have "an occupation of intensive care units below 200 beds and an accumulated incidence 14 days below 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants," she said.