In the epidemiological bulletin issued today, the DGS indicates that there are eight fewer people hospitalised with Covid-19 since Wednesday. In hospitals there are still 324 patients with Covid-19 and 89 patients in intensive care units, one more than the day before.

The number of active cases stands at 23,733, down 76 from Wednesday, and the number of contacts on surveillance is down to 24,315, down 397 from the previous day.

In the last 24 hours 545 people were reported recovered, which now totals 795,326 since the start of the pandemic.

Since March 2020, Portugal has had 836,033 confirmed cases of contagion from the new coronavirus and 16,974 deaths with Covid-19.

According to the latest DGS data, in Portugal 3,084,946 people have already been administered vaccines, including 825,849 with the second dose.

The transmissibility index (Rt) of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus in Portugal rose on Wednesday to 1, while the incidence of cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days fell to 69.3.

The previous figures for these indicators, released on Monday, pointed to an Rt of 0.99 and an incidence of 70.4 cases per 100,000 population.

Rt and incidence data are updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 143 new infections were reported today, with 316,208 cases and 7,193 deaths counted so far.

The North region has 213 new infections by SARS-CoV-2 and since the beginning of the pandemic has recorded 335,861 cases of infection and 5,340 deaths.

In the Centre region, 49 more cases have been registered, accumulating 118,631 infections and 3,014 deaths.

In Alentejo nine more cases were reported and the only death in the last 24 hours, totalling 29,765 infections and 971 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the Algarve region, today's bulletin reveals that 13 new cases have been recorded, accumulating 21,632 infections and 357 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira has recorded 23 cases, accounting for 9,193 infections and 68 deaths due to Covid-19 since March 2020.

The Azores now has 20 new cases and has counted 4,743 cases and 31 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the DGS.

The regional authorities of the Azores and Madeira release their data daily, which may not coincide with the information released in the DGS bulletin.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 379,295 men and 456,426 women in Portugal, DGS data show, according to which there are 312 cases of unknown gender, which are under investigation as this information is not provided automatically.

Of the total number of fatalities, 8,914 were men and 8,060 women.

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated in the elderly over 80 years old, followed by the age group between 70 and 79 years old.

Of the total deaths, 11,170 were people aged over 80, 3,614 were aged between 70 and 79, and 1,519 were aged between 60 and 69.

The pandemic caused at least 3,152,646 deaths worldwide, resulting from more than 149.5 million cases of infection, according to a report by the French agency AFP.