Lisbon, Jan 18: Portugal’s daily death toll from the new coronavirus reached a record high of 167 on Monday, bringing the total to 9,028 deaths since the start of the pandemic, health authority DGS said.
The country of 10 million people, which has been under lockdown since last week to stem the spread of the virus, also reported a record 664 coronavirus patients in intensive care, just below the 672 maximum allocation of ICU beds out of a total of just over 1,000 in Portugal, according to health authorities.
Amid concerns over low compliance with lockdown rules, Portuguese hospitals are trying to cope with soaring contagion, with Portugal now the country with the highest rolling average of new cases over the last seven days per million inhabitants.