"We have had four major pandemic phases and Portugal is currently in the fifth pandemic phase, so far with an impact on severity and mortality lower than the previous phases, although they deserve some special attention", said Pedro Pinto Leite, from DGS, at the assessment meeting on the situation of the pandemic in Portugal at the headquarters of Infarmed, in Lisbon.

The current incidence is 203 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the last 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants, with an increasing trend and a variation of over 47% compared to the homologous period.

According to the expert, the region with the highest incidence of infections is the Algarve, followed by the Centre and Madeira, with these three regions above 240 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Already Lisbon and Vale do Tejo has an incidence "slightly lower than the national", followed by the Alentejo, North and Azores, but also with an increasing trend and with variations above 10%.

Pedro Pinto Leite also added that the age group with the highest incidence of infections is children up to 9 years old, which corresponds to the group of the unvaccinated population.

The group aged 20 to 29 years is the second with a higher incidence of cases of infection, followed by the group aged 30 to 39 years.