Of the more than 428,000 requests, 246,000 were made by women and more than 181,000 by men, according to the data, adding that “in both genders, the age group with the highest number of requests is between 19 and 44 years, followed by the age group between 45 and 64 years old”, according to data from the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health (SPMS).

Lisbon and Vale do Tejo are the regions with the most requests, amounting to 147 thousand, followed by the North region with more than 144 thousand and the Center region with 49 thousand.

The months with the highest number of requests were December (54,606) and January (61,260), according to the data provided to Lusa regarding the entry into force a year ago, on May 1st, of the Self Declaration of Illness (ADD) project through from SNS24.

“In February there was a sharp drop, by half and, since then, there has been a stabilization of orders. In March, 36,489 casualties were issued, according to the SPMS.

The SNS24 application is the most used method, with around 60% of requests, followed by the personal area of the SNS24 Portal.

Self-declaration of illness can be requested by any worker in the personal area of the SNS24 Portal, in the SNS24 application, or on the SNS24 Line (808 24 24 24) and allows you to justify absence from work for the first three days of illness, with no need for payment of remuneration from the employer.

Each citizen can request two short-term sick days per year, if they are ill, on their own responsibility, thus justifying absences from work.