“We have great expectations, we and the whole community around the world, that it will be clearly established that the contagion period is very small after the 10 days of onset of symptoms or contact with a case”, said the director General of Health, Graça Freitas.

Asked about a possible reduction in the isolation period from 14 to ten days, Graça Freitas acknowledged that "it would be extraordinarily positive to be able to decrease the number of days", but that there must first be "robust scientific evidence".

The 14 days correspond to the maximum number of days considered for incubation since the beginning of the pandemic: “It has always been said that this was the incubation period”, recalled Graça Freitas.

"We are looking forward to meeting this period with a lot of positive expectations, but we will see if there is such evidence," he concluded.