Covid-19: Portugal performed 117,000 tests on Tuesday
Portugal carried out around 117 thousand tests to covid-19 on Tuesday, the new maximum in tests in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic, released a ‘task force’ for testing, which is part of the Ricardo Jorge National Institute.
In a statement, the working group to promote the Operationalization Plan for the Testing Strategy for SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal recalls that these data do not include self-tests.
“This number reflected the testing effort carried out in Portugal since March 2020”, said a ‘task force’, recalling that, until now, the day with the highest number of tests carried out had occurred on April 21 of this year, with about 98,000 testicles.
On November 26, the country had already reached a mark of 21 million tests for covid-19, highlights the note, indicating that during the month of November around 1.5 million diagnostic tests were carried out, with an average daily that was around 50 thousand testicles.
With regard to the type of tests, around 15 million TAAN / PCR tests and approximately 6.3 million TRAg for professional use (antigen tests) have been carried out so far, for a total of 21.4 million.
Since November 19, rapid antigen tests carried out in pharmacies and laboratories that adhere to the exceptional reimbursement scheme are once again free of charge.
The measure, which now covers the entire population, “intends to strengthen the protection of public health and the control of the covid-19 pandemic and runs until December 31”, refers to the testing task force, coordinated by Fernando Almeida, president of the Doctor Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute (INSA).
In the statement, the working group recalls that the reactivation of the exceptional and temporary reimbursement scheme “aims to contribute to the detection and early isolation of cases, to prevent and mitigate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on health services and populations vulnerable, as well as reducing and controlling the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection and monitoring the epidemiological evolution of covid-19.