Ema Paulino told Lusa, that Portuguese pharmacies carried out 47,500 antigen tests, while on the previous Friday around 30,500 screenings for coronavirus were carried out.

"There has been an increase in demand and also an increase in pharmacies themselves to carry out more tests and we anticipate that on these two days - Thursdays and Fridays are always busier days - this number can be exceeded", said the head of the ANF.

According to Ema Paulino, this growing demand for free tests can be seen "all over the country", especially in Porto and Lisbon, "due to the events that are planned, namely, in terms of football matches" in the coming days .

"Right now, in terms of self-tests, they have been distributed by suppliers in controlled quantities, which means that, many times, pharmacies do not receive the quantity they had requested", stated the president of the ANF.

Suppliers and pharmacists have already stated that, starting next week, "there will already be a greater capacity" to make self-tests available, said Ema Paulino, who appealed to the population to, at this stage, "purchase only the tests that are truly necessary for the coming days".

Given the demand of recent days, the president of the ANF has guaranteed that pharmacies are doing "everything that is humanly possible" to respond to requests for free tests, under the Government's ordinance.

“This new ordinance has a very different aspect from the first, which excluded a number of people from eligibility, such as those vaccinated and recovered. This ordinance, in theory, covers about 10 million Portuguese and, of course, if all 10 million Portuguese want to take a free test, there is no such ability and we have to be perfectly clear on this matter", she warned.