"The government, because there were more cases in Lisbon, took some restrictive measures for Greater Lisbon at the weekend," such as prohibiting movement in and out of the region, the closure of restaurants earlier, "but it did not serve to contain the infection because "the variant Delta is already spread throughout the country," said Miguel Guimarães, speaking to Lusa news agency.

The Delta variant, he stressed, "is spread because the virus does not take a break during the week, it does not have days off and, therefore, this vision of things, is a vision that does not work.

"Maybe we don't even need to confine Lisbon, we have to start imposing stricter rules through the education of people, so that they comply with the rules of the Directorate-General of Health", defended the President of the Portuguese Medical Association (OM).

Miguel Guimarães stressed that the mask is necessary, but there are "too many people" without it, which he considered "a mistake", as well as it is necessary that people comply with the distance and keep the level of hygiene.

He also advocated "some tight rules" for events with more people, so that they have to take a rapid antigen test, which is now shared by the State.

"There is a set of tools that we should use for the economy to continue to function and to protect health and that starts with the [risk] matrix, he said, adding that "in a short time" OM will have a "matrix already in place" that takes into account "several parameters" because the situation has changed.

In his opinion, it is necessary to associate to the matrix "new measures" "absolutely essential", such as appealing to people to get vaccinated.

"Give a hand to the 'task force' through institutions of completely different areas, sports, culture, etc., to appear and motivate people to be vaccinated because there is a large number of people who are not being vaccinated" and "are not only the people who refuse by SMS the vaccination, are also those who do not appear with convocation of the SNS and are "a very high number", he said.

A "strong message" that must also be passed on is that even those vaccinated must wear a mask: "There are many people vaccinated without a mask, which is wrong. We have to continue to educate people in this sense", he reiterated.

Another measure is to "massively use" rapid antigen tests for "a huge range of activities" to control outbreaks at weddings, christenings, cultural and sporting activities, he said.

He mentioned that closing schools for holidays can be "a big help" in this difficult fight due to the Delta variant, "much more contagious", which means that to achieve group immunity, the percentage of vaccinated people will probably have to exceed 90 percent.

Therefore, he sustained, it is necessary to have "a different way of acting" from the one the country had in the other "acute phases" of the epidemic, without having "great measures of lockdown, that at this moment may not be exactly beneficial in global terms".

"We have to have these alternative measures and start to make an effective surveillance, which I think has always failed," he said.

For him, there needs to be "a great deal of mutual help" between those who can contribute in this matter, to educate people to understand that "to continue to be together, to continue to do their thing, it is essential to comply with the rules".