Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the chairman of the board of directors and the nurse-director of the Norte Alentejano Local Health Unit (ULSNA), Joaquim Araújo and Jorge Marques, respectively, announced the opening of the enquiry and said that the 87 year-old, who came from a home in Cabeço de Vide, in the municipality of Fronteira, had been screened inside the ambulance that transported him, in which he remained for at least two hours and 44 minutes, due to the crowded emergency area for Covid-19.

According to the same sources, the elderly man was registered in hospital at 4.29pm and assessed by a nurse, inside the ambulance, six minutes later, at 4.35pm.

“The patient is totally dependent, he is brought [to hospital] for dyspnoea [shortness of breath] from a home in Cabeço de Vide, where there is an outbreak of Covid-19, which is why he entered the Covid area”, they explained.

However, according to ULSNA sources, the patient had not been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19, information that would only have been obtained by the hospital unit after the death was declared.

Following screening, it was found that the patient “is not dyspnoeic due to low [oxygen] saturation” and was assigned the yellow bracelet, which is an urgent patient.

“At the time of the screening, the nurse spoke to the doctor who passed by the ambulance to see the patient, as the area dedicated to respiratory patients was crowded, and the doctor confirmed that the patient has been stabilised,” said Jorge Marques.

At 7.13pm, a nurse in charge of the team was approached by a firefighter, who informed her that the octogenarian “was getting worse” and the elderly man was immediately assisted in the ambulance.

From there, still according to the same sources, he was then taken to the resuscitation room of the area dedicated to respiratory patients, where death was eventually declared 17 minutes later, at 7.30pm.