According to the DGS epidemiological bulletin, 248 patients are currently hospitalised, nine less than on Tuesday.

With regard to hospitalisations in intensive care, official data indicate that there have been no changes, with 71 patients currently in these units.

Deaths in the last 24 hours were recorded in Lisbon and Tagus Valley (1), the North region (1) and the Algarve region (2).

Since the beginning of the pandemic Portugal has counted 840,493 confirmed cases and 16,998 deaths.

Regarding the number of new cases, today's figures are similar to those recorded in recent weeks, with daily oscillations.

There are 21,874 active cases, 166 more than on Tuesday, and the number of contacts under surveillance by health authorities has dropped by 81, now totalling 19,618.

The data also reveals that 661 people have been reported recovered, bringing the total number since the start of the pandemic in Portugal in March 2020 to 801,306.

DGS data indicates that Portugal has 4,031,909 people vaccinated against Covid-19, of which 1,105,021 are already immunised with both doses.

The transmissibility index (Rt) of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus in Portugal rose today to 0.93, while the incidence of infection cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days dropped to 51.0.

Rt and incidence data are updated on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 167 new infections have been reported, with 317,520 cases and 7,203 deaths counted so far.

The North region has 169 new infections by SARS-CoV-2, totalling 337,710 cases of infection and 5,347 deaths since the pandemic began.

In the Centre region, 41 more cases have been recorded, accumulating 119,124 infections and 3,016 deaths.

In the Alentejo 24 more cases were reported, totalling 29,904 infections and 971 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In the Algarve region, today's bulletin reveals that 46 cases have been registered, accumulating 21,909 infections and 362 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira has recorded 19 new cases, accounting for 9,374 infections and 68 deaths due to Covid-19 since March 2020.

The Azores now has 19 new cases and has counted 4,952 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 381,550 men and 458,605 women in Portugal, DGS data show, according to which there are 338 cases of unknown gender, which are under investigation, as this information is not provided automatically.

Of the total number of fatal victims, 8,928 were men and 8,070 women.

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

Of the total deaths, 11,179 were people aged over 80, 3,621 were aged between 70 and 79, and 1,526 were aged between 60 and 69.

The pandemic caused at least 3,319,512 deaths worldwide, resulting from more than 159.5 million cases of infection, according to a report by the French agency AFP.