Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller said 7,000 requests for coronavirus tests are received each day, adding that while test delivery capacities needed to be increased, laboratories had sufficient means to evaluate the tests.
During an online health conference, Müller said now that the second wave of the virus has arrived, the focus should be on protecting the elderly and the chronically ill, noting her recent instructions to restrict access and admissions to social care homes.
According to MTI, Müller said that when a vaccine becomes available, it should first be given to frontline staff such as people working in healthcare and high-risk groups such as public employees on the front line and teachers. She also asked teachers to work only if they were completely healthy, adding that there had been many cases of teachers turning up at school even though they knew they had symptoms of the virus.
Müller noted the accumulation of knowledge about the virus during the first wave, adding that the authorities were monitoring the dynamics of the epidemic. But public-health and individual hygiene rules should be followed, including physical distancing, mask use and regular hand disinfection, she added. Müller said it was clear that the virus was being transmitted most by young people, so now there was a lower mortality rate.