"With the decision to start using the [digital] certificate and tests for more functions and moments, the Government is also, at this moment, studying a way to be able to share its costs and we hope to have news in the coming days", said Mariana Vieira da Silva, after the Council of Ministers.

At a press conference, the Minister of State and the Presidency recalled that there are already municipalities in the country that provide these tests for screening the SARS-CoV-2 virus free of charge, and the Government is now studying "a way to pay for them". According to the government official, the objective of this eventual cost sharing is for the tests to be “increasingly used”, either as a condition for carrying out some activities, but also in a more accessible way to the population.

The Council of Ministers decided today that the ban on movement into or out of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) will remain in effect next weekend, but whoever has a digital certificate or a negative Covid-19 test can pass. According to the minister, people who have a digital certificate or a negative Covid-19 test with laboratory results may enter and leave the Metropolitan Area, adding that children up to 12 years of age do not need to present a test.