In a joint statement issued on Monday night, the Directorate-General of Health (DGS) and the National Health Institute (INSA) said that a survey would be carried out “of the structural and procedural conditions of healthcare units that form part of the National Health Service” - including health centres and hospitals – “as part of assessment and management of risk”.

The statement, which is signed by the director of the DGS, Graça Freitas, and the president of INSA, Fernando de Almeida, also states that INSA and the Service of Common Use of Hospitals “are developing an Operation Intervention Programme of technical auditing to support all hospital units in the National Health Service”.

In the same statement, the two institutions announced that the number of diagnosed cases of Legionnaires’ at Lisbon’s São Francisco Xavier hospital had risen to 30, including two deaths