The DGS daily epidemiological bulletin lists 952 people hospitalised today, 15 less than on Wednesday, of whom 158 are in intensive care units, eight more in the last 24 hours.

According to data from the health authority, there was a death of a person in the age group between 30 and 39 years, with the remaining deaths in the age groups 50 to 59 (one), 60 to 69 (one), 70 to 79 (two) and the elderly over 80 years (14).

Of the 19 deaths, six occurred in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, five in the North, four in the Centre, two in Alentejo and two in Madeira.

Lisbon and Tagus Valley is the region with the most new cases diagnosed in the last 24 hours (1,902), followed by the North (1,512), the Centre (1,027), the Algarve (381), the Alentejo (143), Madeira (138) and the Azores (34).

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated among the elderly over 80 years old (12,170), followed by age groups between 70 and 79 years old (4,040) and between 60 and 69 years old (1,711).

There are now 69,672 active cases of Covid-19, 1,712 more than on Wednesday, and 3,406 people have recovered from the disease, which increases the national total of those recovered to 1,122,741.

Compared to the previous day, health authorities have 2,810 more contacts on surveillance, bringing the total to 95,430 people.

The highest number of new cases diagnosed are in the age group between 20 and 29 years (866), followed by those aged 40 to 49 years (814), 30 to 39 years (810), 50 to 59 years (656), zero to nine years (639), 10 to 19 years (596), 60 to 69 years (461), 70 to 79 years (203) and the elderly over 80 years (92).

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region has registered 461,180 cases and 7,901 deaths.

In the North region, there have been 451,292 infections and 5,717 deaths and the Centre region now has a cumulative total of 174,133 infections and 3,307 deaths.

The Algarve totals 53,390 infections and 553 deaths and the Alentejo adds 44,106 cases and 1,075 deaths from covid-19.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira counted in the last 24 hours, according to the DGS, 138 new cases, adding 16,495 infections and 115 deaths, and the Azores recorded 34 new infections, totalling 10,534 and 49 deaths.

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

In Portugal, since March 2020, 18,717 people have died and 1,211,130 cases of infection have been counted, according to DGS data.

A total of 565,103 men and 645,187 women have been infected in the country, with 9,820 deaths among men and 8,897 among women also recorded.

Covid-19 has caused at least 5,328,762 deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the most recent report from the Agence France-Presse.

A new variant, Omicron, classified as "worrying" by the World Health Organization (WHO), was detected in southern Africa, but since South African health authorities sounded the alert on November 24, infections have been reported in at least 57 countries on all continents, including Portugal.