The rapid antigen tests carried out in participating pharmacies and laboratories in Portugal, will once again be free of charge for eligible patients, as of Friday 19th November.
Those pharmacies and laboratories that adhere to the exceptional reimbursement scheme, will carry out free tests, limited to a maximum of four tests per month, per user.
The Portuguese Pharmacy Association was “surprised” by the announcement of the Ministry of Health and admits that “there may be delays” in some pharmacies, with the service starting only “at the beginning of next week”. With the return of the free rapid tests, pharmacies admit that "it may be necessary to adapt schedules to reconcile testing and flu vaccination."
The Ministry of Health justifies this renewal of the regime taking into account the current epidemiological situation and the importance of intensifying tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in a progressive and risk-proportionate manner, which contribute to the strengthening of control of the pandemic.
According to the latest data released by the Task Force to promote the Operationalization Plan for the Testing Strategy for SARS-CoV-2, more than 20 million diagnostic tests for covid-19 have been carried out in Portugal since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
This year, around 48,000 tests were carried out a day, on average, equating to more than 70% of the total diagnostic tests carried out since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the data released on November 6th.
