LISBON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The Portuguese government announced on Wednesday the extension of the COVID-19 pandemic "alert situation" until April 18, according to a statement from the Council of Ministers.

       This is the lowest level of alert for disaster situations, according to the Portuguese Basic Law for Civil Protection, and was scheduled to renew on March 30.

       According to the resolution decided Wednesday, "the measures currently in force remain unchanged" to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

       Among the measures in force is the mandatory use of a mask in public indoor spaces, health services and transport.

       For those who do not have the booster dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, the negative test for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus remains mandatory in visits to homes and health facilities.

       The transmissibility index (Rt) of the new coronavirus is at 0.97 at the national level, announced the weekly report of the National Institute of Health Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) released Wednesday.

       According to data from the INSA survey, Portugal records an average of 11,389 daily infections every five days.

       The BA.2 lineage of the Omicron variant is now "clearly dominant in Portugal, representing 88.7 percent of positive samples," reveals the Institute's latest report on genetic diversity.