Comunicação de Risco em Saúde no Contexto Português: uma perceção da pandemia através do Facebook.

This article presents the main results concerning the communication activity on the official Facebook page of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS, its Portuguese acronym), of the Portuguese Ministry of Health, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The DGS, as the main communicator on health matters, played a seminal role in the fight against Covid-19 through the guidance and clarification of citizens. Therefore, this analysis is focused in one of the most critical periods of the pandemic, 03/02/2020 - 12/27/2020, estimating a sum of 1,199 publications made. One of the main issues discussed relates to the health literacy levels in Portugal; its impact on individuals' decision-making process concerning their own health; ultimately how health literacy can be used as a strategy to eradicate and prevent future health crisis situations. The main results of this study emphasize that the Portuguese health authorities started using social media as an important means to convey health information to the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]