In view of the worsening situation at a national level, the Prime Minister met Friday with parties with parliamentary seats, while the Minister of Economy received the social partners on possible containment measures.

"We did not exclude any possible measure at the outset, but we understand that we must adopt measures that disturb personal, social and economic life as little as possible. We must take into account a second element that I have tried to convey: We are facing a long-distance race and therefore, we cannot use up all our efforts or all the measures in the first moments", António Costa said on Thursday.

The extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, which starts at 10:00 am, in the Palácio da Ajuda, takes place one day after the country has surpassed records since the beginning of the pandemic with the registration of 40 dead, 4,656 infected and 1,927 inpatients, 275 of whom are in intensive care, according to the Directorate-General for Health.

On the table for discussion will be several possibilities, including the mandatory withdrawal and the extension of restrictions imposed in Paços de Ferreira, Felgueiras and Lousada to more municipalities, as stated on Friday by the Minister of Economy, Siza Vieira.

According to the PAN party, the Government is considering decreeing a general lockdown, but only during the first half of December, to preserve the Christmas period. However, the leader of the PAN party, André Silva, said that this measure was not presented as being certain and stressed that it requires a state of emergency.

According to the leader of the Liberal Initiative, Cotrim Figueiredo, the Government admitted at the hearing on Friday the possibility of imposing the lockdown in counties where the incidence rate reaches 240 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Rui Rio of PSD warned that the current situation is "even more serious" than that seen in March but said that the country will not experience general lockdown because the country's economy will not allow it. The PSD party, he said, will always be "on the side of the solution", in case the Government proposes a new state of emergency.

BE coordinator Catarina Martins, for the time being, has ruled out the need for a new state of emergency, arguing that the Government should use all the installed capacity in health, if necessary using the civil requisition of the private and social sectors.

The Chega party, who delivered to the Administrative Court of Círculo de Lisboa a "subpoena for the defense of rights, freedoms and guarantees" against the ban on movement between municipalities in the national territory, (which runs until 06:00 am on November 3), André Ventura criticized the possibility of applying the rules already in force in Paços de Ferreira, Lousada and Felgueiras throughout the national territory, considering that this would be "an injustice".

Regarding the possibility of a new general confinement in the first half of December, André Ventura considered that "it is not justified and it may even be counterproductive".

The state of emergency was decreed, for 15 days, from March 19 to April 2, 2020 and was renewed twice, effective until May 2.

Portugal has been in a state of calamity since the 14th of October throughout the national territory.