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Portugal to invest €12.1b in health system in 2021

Published : 19 Mar 2021, 22:49

DF News Desk

A health technician takes a swab sample from a teacher for a COVID-19 test at Sao Joao do Estoril school in Cascais, Portugal, on March 16, 2021. File Photo: Xinhua.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced a 12.1-billion-euro investment in the country's National Health Service (SNS) this year. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of the health care system in a pandemic, reported Xinhua.

The money will come from the government's Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) to access European Union (EU) funds to relaunch the economy after the pandemic.

According to Costa, the money will be used "not to finance the day-to-day shortages but to make the structural changes necessary to strengthen the SNS," such as the family health units (USF), integrated care, the palliative care network and the mental health care network.

Also on Friday, Portugal registered 11 more deaths and 568 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. The total number of coronavirus-related fatalities now stands at 16,754 fatal, with 816,623 infected since the beginning of the pandemic.

Portugal has already vaccinated 1,280,409 -- 875,490 with the first dose and 404,919 with the second dose.