“I believe that we are in a position to fulfil what was scheduled, unless there is an unforeseen circumstance”, Marta Temido told journalists.

Despite not being able to anticipate what will happen, the official stressed that the country continues to have a decrease in the number of admissions to wards and intensive care, despite the growth of cases in recent days.

“The growth in the number of cases is controlled from the point of view of what is the impact on health services”, she stressed.

Marta Temido stressed that at the moment Portugal has 41 deaths per million inhabitants, according to the red lines report released on Friday.

However, she added, this number must decrease further for the easing of restrictions to materialise.

On February 24, the director-general of Health, Graça Freitas, said that the end of the use of masks in interior spaces is being considered, but that will only happen when mortality from Covid-19 in Portugal decreases and the epidemic activity is lower.

"We have an important milestone to cross, which is to reduce mortality to the levels that the ECDC [European Center for Disease Prevention Control] advocates", 20 deaths per million inhabitants, Graça Freiras told journalists.