Lisbon, Feb 12 (IANS): Portugal's Parliament has approved the renewal of the state of emergency in the country until March 1, allowing the government to keep all lockdown and anti-Covid9 measures in place.

"It was a difficult two weeks, but it ended better than it started. It started with numbers of the worst in the world and very high pressure on health structures," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in Parliament on Thursday.

The President said the country needs to "improve the screening of contaminated people with more tests and more staff for the challenge of vaccination", adding that the Portuguese people need to "get out of spring without another summer and autumn threatened in life, economy, health, and society".

"There are delays in the production and supply of vaccines in Europe and Portugal, and that only from April onwards will we vaccinate more and more quickly to meet the goal set for September," he added.

Portugal has so far reported 778,369 coronavirus cases and 14,885 deaths.