Portuguese voters – largely confined to their homes due to a strict COVID-19 lockdown – will pick a new president on Sunday, but many fear going to the polls could worsen a surge in coronavirus cases and low turnout is expected.
The country of 10 million people, which fared better than others in the first wave of the pandemic, now has the world’s highest seven-day rolling average of new cases and deaths per capita.
Authorities reported a record daily toll of 274 deaths and more than 15,300 new cases on Saturday.
The explosion in new infections is mainly the result of the spread of the more contagious variant first discovered in Britain.