Speaking at the presentation of BE candidates to local authorities in Salvaterra de Magos, in the district of Santarém, Catarina Martins recalled that the mass testing programme was announced in February and again in March and April, but has not started and the number of tests has been declining.

"It's June and the number of tests has been decreasing, and don't tell us it's because of the holidays, because precisely because of the holidays, we need more testing," she said, noting that out of 325,000 tests in a week carried out 15 days ago, the number was now down to 296,000 last week, when the Directorate-General of Health guaranteed that there was capacity to carry out 100,000 tests a day.

Stressing the "success" of vaccination in Portugal, demonstrated in the reduction in the number of deaths, particularly in nursery homes, Catarina Martins warned, however, of the need to "look carefully at the number of infections that have been increasing in recent weeks ”.

"In the coming weeks we will hear many calls for individual responsibility to contain the pandemic," she said, stressing that there is also a "public and collective" responsibility, therefore, the delay in testing is not understood.