At the time of going to press the DGS had not held a press conference for three weeks, however the government has assured that the situation surrounding the pandemic continues to be relayed to the public and that they are “always looking for the best way” to communicate Covid-19 situation in the country.

“If we do a lot of press conferences we are criticised, because we do a lot of press conferences and we are exhaustive. If we don’t do it, then we are also criticised. We are always looking for the best way”, said the Assistant Secretary of State and Health, António Lacerda Sales , when asked about the fact that DGS has been without press conferences on the pandemic for three consecutive weeks.

The Secretary of State stressed that “every day” the government is trying to communicate with the population.

“The minister [of Health] has been trying to communicate all over the place and I am also available where I can try to help the minister and we have several epidemiologists providing information”, he stressed.

António Lacerda Sales also said that the Government is always looking for “the best way to transmit the truth and the truth with transparency” however this is being questioned when taking into account the lack of press conferences in recent weeks.

The last press conference of the Directorate-General for Health to update the pandemic data in Portugal took place on January 5, at a time when Portugal had registered a total of 7,286 deaths associated with Covid-19 and a total of 436,579 confirmed cases of infection.
Since then, the pandemic numbers have worsened in the country and on 26 January, 11,012 deaths had been associated with the virus and 653,878 cases of infection.

There had been a press conference scheduled for 19 January but that was cancelled due to “agenda reasons”.

These regular meetings with journalists began on March 9, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, when the country had only 39 people infected with Covid-19, with the Ministry of Health announcing that, from that day on, there would be two daily bulletins available, one in the morning when the bulletin of the epidemiological situation in the country would be shared and one in the late afternoon, a press conference at the DGS or at the ministry.

After more than 100 daily press conferences, as a rule given by Minister Marta Temido, General Director of Health Graça Freitas and Secretary of State António Lacerda Sales, they started from 15 June to be three times a week - on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
At the time of going to press there was no information relating to the resumption of regular DGS press conferences.

See daily updated information about the Covid-19 situation at www.theportugalnews.com.

At the beginning of December, Graça Freitas tested positive for Covid-19, which led to the cancellation of the press conference scheduled for the 2nd, leaving thirteen days later, on December 13, to the deputy director-general of Health, Rui Portugal, to do the state of the pandemic.

The Lusa agency contacted the Directorate-General for Health on Tuesday to obtain clarification on the failure to hold press conferences in recent weeks, but so far has not received a response.

Author

Originally from the UK, Daisy has been living and working in Portugal for more than 20 years. She has worked in PR, marketing and journalism, and has been the editor of The Portugal News since 2019. Jornalista 7920

Daisy Sampson