The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in Portugal has risen by 371 in the past 24 hours, reaching 22,353, the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health informed, Trend reports citing TASS.
The number of deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in the country has risen from 785 to 820 in the past 24 hours. Since the start of the epidemic, over 1,200 people have recovered. The highest number of infections (13,382) has been documented in the north of the country.
Portugal has introduced a state of emergency, which will be active until at least May 2. Earlier, Portuguese Minister of Internal Administration Eduardo Cabrita announced that the Portuguese-Spanish border would remain closed until May 15. The government has also prolonged the suspension of flights with Italy until May 6.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,600,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 184,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 723,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.