The information was provided by researcher Baltazar Nunes, from the National Health Institute Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA), who highlighted the current “growth phase” of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country and said that on April 8, the last time which there was data, the R has already reached 1.09, when in the previous Infarmed meeting (March 23) the value of this index was 0.89.

“In the country, with this level of growth and a rate close to 71 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, the time to reach the line of 120 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants is between two weeks and one month.

“The Algarve region has already reached that value and so have the regions of Madeira and the Azores”, he said, in reference to the first line of evaluation of the matrix designed by the Government to control the epidemiological situation in the plan of deflation.

In an intervention carried out at the meeting at Infarmed, in Lisbon, which brings together experts, members of the Government and the President of the Republic, Baltazar Nunes highlighted that the increase in incidence is more visible in the age group up to 9 years old and that, on the contrary, and “Very positive”, the incidence of new cases in the age group above 65 years was low.

Portugal has also increased its mobility indexes, with the end of confinement, and is now “in the middle of the table of countries with the greatest population mobility”, in addition to an increase in the contacts of citizens with different age groups.