Doctors despair, schools shut as pandemic overwhelms Portugal

FILE PHOTO: A health care worker wears personal protective equipment in Santa Maria Hospital Intermediate care unit, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Lisbon, Portugal, January 18, 2021. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo

LISBON (Reuters) - Overwhelmed by record numbers of COVID-19 patients, Portuguese hospital doctors spoke on Thursday of exhaustion and despair, as the government sought to slow contagion rates by ordering all schools to close for 15 days from Friday.

Western Europe's poorest country coped well in last year's first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but it has been swamped in recent weeks by a faster-spreading mutation, registering the world's highest infection and death rates.