The bulletin also reveals that 5,630 people are hospitalised, 137 more than on Wednesday, of which 702 are in intensive care units, that is, 21 more, two figures that also represent new highs in the pandemic phase.

The daily number of new active cases is the highest ever. Today 151,226 are active, up 7,450 in the last 24 hours.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, Portugal has registered 9,686 deaths associated with Covid-19 and 595,149 infections by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Health authorities have 192,900 contacts under surveillance, 8,866 more than the previous day.

The bulletin also reveals that a further 5,873 people have been reported as recovered.

Since the beginning of the epidemic in Portugal in March, 434,237 people have recovered.

Of the 221 deaths registered in the last 24 hours, 85 occurred in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, 59 in the Centre region, 53 in the North region, 16 in Alentejo and eight in the Algarve region.

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region 5,401 new infections have been reported, with 202,712 cases and 3,515 deaths so far.

The northern region has registered a further 4,510 new SARS-CoV-2 infections in the last 24 hours and, since the beginning of the pandemic, has registered 270,894 cases of infection and 3,919 deaths.

Lisbon and the Tagus Valley and the Northern region account for 73.1 percent of infections at national level.

In the Centre region, there were 2,539 more cases, with 81,492 infections and 1,598 deaths.

In Alentejo, a further 638 cases were reported, totalling 20,230 infections and 463 deaths since the beginning of the epidemic in Portugal.

The Algarve region has today reported another 355 new cases, totalling 13,711 infections and 140 deaths.

Madeira has registered 78 new cases. This autonomous region accounts for 2,994 infections and 29 deaths due to covid-19.

In the Autonomous Region of the Azores 23 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, totalling 3,116 infections and 22 deaths.

The confirmed cases are spread over all age groups, with the highest number of infections recorded being between 20 and 59 years old.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 268,074 men and 326,887 women in Portugal, according to DGS data, 188 cases of unknown sex are under investigation, as these data are not provided automatically.

Of the total number of fatalities, 5,033 were men and 4,653 women.

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated in the elderly over the age of 80, followed by the 70-79 age group.

Of the total of 9,686 deaths related to Covid-19, 6,525 affected people aged over 80, 1,975 were aged between 70 and 79 and 809 were aged between 60 and 69.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 2,075,698 deaths from over 96.8 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.