The epidemiological bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health indicates that there are now 13 fewer people on hospital wards, now totalling 437.

There are 100 patients in intensive care units, one less than on Tuesday.

On 24 February 1,480 new cases were reported and since then Portugal has not recorded figures above 1,400.

More than half of the new cases of infection (964) continue to be recorded in the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley, where there were also three deaths.

One of the people who died today was a man between 50 and 59 years and the others (a man and a woman) were over 80 years old.

The data released by the DGS also shows that there are 634 more active cases now totalling 29,012 and that 860 have been reported recovered in the last 24 hours, which brings the national total to 822,234 recovered.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, 17,077 people have died in Portugal and 868,323 cases of infection have been recorded.

The number of contacts under surveillance by health authorities has risen by 1,760, now totalling 43,419.

The incidence of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in mainland Portugal rose to 129.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and in the whole of the territory it now stands at 128.6, official data shows.

The incidence of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in mainland Portugal was, on Monday, 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while the figure for the whole country was 119.3.

According to the joint epidemiological bulletin of the General Directorate of Health (DGS) and the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), the transmissibility index (Rt) decreased from 1.18 to 1.17 throughout the country and from 1.19 to 1.18 in mainland Portugal.

The transmissibility index and 14-day incidence data are updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 964 new infections have been reported, with 333,133 cases and 7,250 deaths counted so far.

This region has 64.3 percent of the total number of cases at national level.

The North region now has 208 new infections by SARS-CoV-2, totalling 343,967 cases of infection and 5,361 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In the Centre region, 108 more cases have been recorded, accumulating 121,223 infections and 3,027 deaths.

In the Alentejo, 59 more cases were reported, totalling 30,744 infections and 972 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In the Algarve region, today's bulletin reveals that 127 cases were registered, accumulating 23,352 infections and 365 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira has registered 12 cases, adding 9,861 infections and 69 deaths due to Covid-19 since March 2020.

The Azores now has 19 new cases and counts 6,043 cases and 33 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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 395,339 men and 472,565 women in Portugal, DGS data show, according to which there are 419 cases of unknown gender, which are under investigation, as this information is not provided automatically.

Of the total number of fatal victims, 8,964 were men and 8,113 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, 11,211 were people aged over 80, 3,644 were aged between 70 and 79, and 1,537 were aged between 60 and 69.

The pandemic caused at least 3,884,538 deaths worldwide, resulting from more than 179 million officially diagnosed cases of infection, according to the French agency AFP.