"There seems to be a stabilisation of this whole process, even with some downward trends", but it is "more important to say that we cannot let our guard down and, therefore we remain greatly concerned" regarding the pandemic, he said.

At a press conference at Air Base No. 11 (BA11), in Beja, where he visited a military reception centre for patients with Covid-19, which is currently empty, Lacerda Sales was asked by journalists about whether Portugal had already reached the peak of the pandemic.

"We will only know the peak when we have experienced two incubation periods with a downward trend", he clarified.

The Secretary of State reiterated the need to keep up measures to prevent the spread of the disease “because the health services are under great pressure”.

“The intensive care units are under a lot of pressure”, he insisted, remembering that “health services are not the solution to this process”, because “the solution is in each one of us, it is in the social and collective consciousness of everyone”.

On Tuesday, a document from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) was released that estimates that if countries that in October and November took new measures to control the pandemic lifted them on December 21, hospital admissions will increase in the first week of January.

EDC's projections indicate that Portugal should reach the peak of new cases of Covid-19 by the end of this month, but that the peak of deaths should happen as early as December, with a daily number that may remain high until Christmas.