LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal on Monday reported no coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours for the first time in nearly nine months as the country emerges from a two-month lockdown, the health authority said.
The country has reported a total of 16,965 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic and 834,638 infection cases, 196 more than reported the day before.
The last time Portugal reported no coronavirus-related deaths was on August 3.
The health authority highlighted that it remains in the green zone of the risk matrix, with a transmission risk below 1 and a national incidence rate of 70.4 cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants.
About 20% of its 10 million people have now been inoculated with one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 7% with two doses, while more than 90% of the people aged 80 or more – the group with the most deaths – has been vaccinated with at least one dose.
Portugal, which imposed a lockdown in January to curb what was then the world’s worst COVID-19 surge, started lifting restrictions in March and has since reopened some schools, restaurant and cafe terraces, museums and hair salons.
(By Patrícia Vicente Rua; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
