The Portuguese elder care system was already under pressure before the pandemic, due to an ageing population and overall undervaluing of care work which often leads to labour shortages and to scarce staff adaptability. The coronavirus pandemic brought these trends to light and made elder care a top priority for the authorities, and an extensive set of preventive and corrective measures were adopted in order to mitigate the pandemic's effect among elder care users and workers. Labour shortages proved to be one of the major sources of pressure on elder care in the Portuguese context, bringing attention to the need to improve working conditions in care work.