"We are in a fight against the time between vaccination and the progression of the disease and this makes it necessary to ask everyone for an additional effort at this time," said Mariana Vieira da Silva, at the end of the Council of Ministers. The minister underlined that the country is, at the moment, "in a more serious situation and it is up to everyone to try to fight it". According to the minister, 720,000 people over 60 years of age still do not have complete vaccination at this time, lacking the second dose of the vaccine against covid-19. "It is therefore very important that this is a period of pandemic control," she said, noting that the Government's expectation, according to the vaccines that are available, is that every week 320,000 people complete the vaccination.

Mariana Vieira da Silva referenced the results of studies showing that the effectiveness of vaccines in relation to the Delta variant have a good response in full vaccination, but not with the first dose. “We are making this anticipation and we anticipate that in the month of July this vaccination will be complete, anticipating all people who were 12 weeks apart to eight weeks apart. Every week you win means that we have more than 320,000 people with full vaccinations”, she maintained. The Minister of the Presidency also said that "the main message" that the Government wants to leave at this moment is the "idea that it wants to have the pandemic under control in order to have time to progressively vaccinate people, particularly those who are more vulnerable."

Portugal recorded in the last 24 hours two deaths associated with covid-19, 1,556 new cases of confirmed infections, mostly in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, a decrease in hospital admissions and an increase in intensive care. Since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, 17,079 people have died in Portugal and 869,879 cases of infection have been registered.