The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said this Friday that he had the expectation that Portugal would register only 100 cases of covid-19, or less, per day, in early September, but considered the situation “controlled and stable”.

“My expectation, in June and July, I do not hide it, was that we would arrive now [at the beginning of September] with 100 cases or less per day”, he said, on the side lines of a visit to the village of Castro Marim, as part of the travel to all municipalities in the Algarve.

The head of state considered that ” the situation is controlled and stable, in the good sense of the term, in terms of hospitalizations and intensive care “, but that he expected ” a downward trend, tending to decrease progressively ” in the national number of cases.

“Unfortunately, that is not what happened. We are, on some days of the week, with ups and downs: on weekends, [the numbers] are low – between Saturday and Monday – and during the week they are much higher”, he added.

“There are several statements by members of the Government that say that there is something of concern or that the situation is serious. When the Government, a few weeks in advance, admits to going into a state of contingency, it is not because it is unconcerned, but it did not announce the state contingency.

The President of the Republic recalled that the return of meetings on the evolution of the covid-19 is scheduled for Monday in Porto, with the presence of all political parties with parliamentary seats.

“I hope that this session will also be useful for this, for all political parties to understand why the Government, in advance, pre-emptively, said that it intended to, in a few weeks, come to resort to the state of contingency. I hope that this session, in addition to clarifying the Portuguese in the open part, clarifies the political parties with seats in the Assembly of the Republic”, he stressed.

Asked about the presence of the public in the stadiums, a claim claimed by the Portuguese Professional Football League in recent weeks, the head of state said that “the definition of rules and monitoring of the evolution of the situation” is at stake and that the management of the pandemic it goes through “a balance between defending life and health and not killing the economy or society”.