Rt rate rising: Portugal unlikely to reach ideal of 60 cases per 100,000 by end March

With the Rt (transmission) rate rising since Portugal’s slow process of deconfinement began last Monday, experts at the meeting at Infarmed in Lisbon today have said it is still ‘too early’ to quantify the effect of having opened creches, nursery schools and primary schools. The situation however suggests estimates that the country could reach a level of infection of 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants by end March were overly-optimistic. Incidence rates remain ‘moderate’ with the most accentuated reduction having been registered in the over-80 age group (the one that to date has received the most in the way of vaccinations). Europe’s increasing rates of infections “have to be taken into consideration for future analysis”, Baltazar Nunes of the national health institute Dr Ricardo Jorge (INSA) has stressed.