Lisbon: Portugal Health Minister on Wednesday estimates the Omicron variant will trigger the number of infections in the coming days because the authorities reported nearly 9,000 new cases, the highest since early February and rose from 5,754 days earlier.
Although this country has one of the levels of Covid-19 vaccination in the world with around 87% of the 10 million population fully inoculated, daily infections have returned to the last level seen when Portugal faces the worst wave in the first two months of the year.
“We will most likely reach the number of cases (all time) in the coming days,” said Minister of Health Marta Temido in an interview with TVI television.
Portugal reported a record of 16,432 cases at the end of January when the public system was on the verge of destruction.
Death and inpatient well below the level then suffered.
There were 909 people with Covid-19 in hospitals compared to the peak of 6,869 patients in February 1.
The rate of infection of 14 days has more than doubled in the past month to reach 579 per 100,000 people on Wednesday, official data shows.
About half of the new Coronavirus cases in Portugal comes from the Omicron variant.
To limit the spread in vacation time, the government announced new restrictions on Tuesday, ordering a nightclub and bar to close and notify people to work from home for at least two weeks starting on Christmas Day.
Prime Minister Antonio Costa has urged people to limit their contact as much as possible.
Portugal has increased Coronavirus testing to reach an average of 133,000 tests per day but, because of the approach of holiday celebrations and growing demand, some supermarkets run out of kits and several pharmacies available.