According to the epidemiological bulletin of the General Directorate of Health (DGS), released today, 284 people are now hospitalised, four less than on Thursday, of whom 60 are in intensive care units, two more in the last 24 hours.

The eight deaths were registered in the regions of Lisbon (1), North (2), Centre (2), Alentejo (2) and Algarve (1).

Four of the fatalities were over 80 years old and another four between 70 and 79.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, 18,125 people have died in Portugal and 1,083,651 cases of infection have been recorded.

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated among the elderly over 80 years old (11,825), followed by the age group between 70 and 79 years old (3,881).

Of the total number of fatal victims recorded to date, in Portugal 9,507 were men and 8,618 women.

The data released by the DGS also show that 244 more cases are active, for a total of 30,805, and that 678 people have been reported recovered from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, which increases the national total to 1,034,721 recovered.

In the last 24 hours, the number of contacts under surveillance by health authorities has risen (up 354) to 20,931.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 581,780 women and 501,129 men in Portugal, according to data from the DGS, according to which there are 742 cases of unknown sex, which are under investigation, since this information is not provided automatically.

Among the new infections the age group from 30 to 39 stands out (141), followed by 20 to 29 years (138), 40 to 49 years (131), 50 to 59 years (120), 0 to 9 years (94), 10 to 19 years (91), 60 to 69 years (83), over 80 years (71) and 70 to 79 years (61).

The Lisbon and Tagus Valley region and the North region concentrate around 64.5 percent of the infections reported in the last 24 hours.

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 377 new infections have been reported, with 418,519 cases and 7,713 deaths counted so far in this geographical area.

The Northern region has registered 223 new infections by SARS-CoV-2, totalling 414,422 cases of infection and 5,591 deaths since the start of the pandemic crisis.

In the Centre region, 186 more cases were reported, totalling 145,457 infections and 3,176 deaths.

In the Alentejo, 53 new cases of infection were reported, totalling 39,943 infections and 1,051 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In the Algarve region, today's bulletin from the DGS reports 52 new cases, accumulating 43,572 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 477 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira counted 22 new cases, adding 12,525 infections and 73 deaths due to the Covid-19 disease since March 2020.

In the last 24 hours, and according to the DGS, the Azores registered 17 new cases, which brings to 9,213 contagions since the start of the pandemic and 44 deaths due to the disease.

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

Covid-19 has caused at least 4,926,579 deaths worldwide, among more than 242.39 million infections by the new coronavirus recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest balance sheet from Agence France-Presse.