Lisbon, Jan. 20, 2021 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister for the economy and digital transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, tested positive for the new coronavirus, has some symptoms and is in home isolation, his office said.

Pedro Siza Vieira has been in prophylactic isolation since Saturday, after having been in contact with the finance minister, who is also infected with SARS-CoV-2.

According to a statement issued on the occasion, the minister of economy and digital transition is in prophylactic isolation, on the orders of the health authorities, as he had contact with the finance minister, João Leão.

"Even though all safety rules have always been safeguarded, it was considered, as a mere precaution, that the minister should go into prophylactic isolation, despite not having been tested and presenting no symptoms," the note said.

The ministry of finance said on Saturday that Leão had contracted Covid-19.

The minister is in home isolation, with no symptoms so far, and is working, the statement said.

On Friday, Leão attended working meetings with the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the College of Commissioners, which visited Lisbon as part of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union.

On Thursday, the government confirmed that the minister of labour, Ana Mendes Godinho, had tested positive to Covid-19 and had been in prophylactic isolation since Monday.

Environment and climate action ministers, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, and of the sea, Ricardo Serrão Santos, also went into prophylactic isolation on Monday, on health authority instructions, having received negative tests in the meantime.

João Leão and Ana Mendes Godinho are not the first members of the government with Covid-19: in October, the minister of science, technology and higher education, Manuel Heitor, tested positive.

In November, it was the turn of Minister Nelson de Souza, in charge of planning, who received a positive test after the secretary of state for planning, Ricardo Pinheiro, was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Portugal's president and presidential candidate, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has been under surveillance since last week, because he was in low-risk contact with two others infected with the new coronavirus, and should therefore monitor symptoms and restrict social contacts, avoiding large crowds.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 2,041,289 deaths from over 95.4 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.

In Portugal, 9,246 people have died out of 566,958 confirmed cases of infection, according to the most recent health bulletin.

JML/IMYN // ADB.

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