In the last two months, the country has entered the sixth wave of the pandemic, recording, according to data from the Directorate-General for Health (DGS), a total of 988,307 cases: 288,059 in April and 700,248 in May, which means 21% of the infections notified by Portugal to the World Health Organization (WHO) as of Wednesday.

The significant increase in infections recorded in recent weeks is due, according to experts, to the end of the generalized mandatory use of a mask since April 21, at a time when the incidence was at 556 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, but also to the growth of a new strain of the Ómicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.