The daily epidemiological bulletin of the DGS records an increase in the number of people hospitalised, accounting today 2,320 hospitalisations, 71 more than on Thursday, 152 of which in intensive care units, five more in the last 24 hours.

Active cases have again increased in the last 24 hours, totalling 579,370, 21,241 more than on Thursday, and 42,548 people have recovered from the disease, which brings the national total of recovered to 1,908,199.

Active cases and contacts under surveillance remain more than one million people (1,173,752), equivalent to about 11 percent of the Portuguese population.

Of the 44 deaths, 17 occurred in Lisbon and Tagus Valley, 16 in the North, five in the Centre, three in Alentejo, two in the Algarve and one in the Azores.

Compared to the situation in Portugal on the same day a year ago, the country now has 47,401 more new cases of infection - 16,432 new cases were counted on 28 January 2021.

In this comparison, the number of hospitalisations is now lower, since a year ago 6,565 people were hospitalised, 781 of which in intensive care, and there are now also fewer deaths (on the same day in 2021, the DGS bulletin counted 303 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the maximum number of deaths ever reached since the start of the pandemic).

The North is the region with the most new cases diagnosed in the last 24 hours, a total of 27,442, followed by Lisbon and Tagus Valley (18,657), the Centre (10,608), the Algarve (2,514), the Alentejo (2,115), the Azores (1,418) and Madeira (1,079).

According to the DGS data, 32 of the 44 deaths were of elderly people over 80 years old, six in the 70 to 79 age group, four between 60 and 69 years old and two between 50 and 59 years old.

The largest number of deaths since the start of the pandemic is concentrated among the elderly over 80 years old (12,801), followed by those between 70 and 79 years old (4,294) and between 60 and 69 years old (1,825).

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region has registered 929,467 cases and 8,340 deaths.

In the North region there have been 960,221 infections and 6,020 deaths and the Centre region now has a cumulative total of 347,263 infections and 3,474 deaths.

The Algarve totals 96,039 infections and 624 deaths and the Alentejo adds 83,133 cases and 1,119 deaths from Covid-19.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira totals 61,703 infections and 154 deaths since the start of the pandemic and the Azores archipelago 29,531 cases and 57 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, 19,788 people have died, 10,409 men and 9,379 women.

There have already been 2,507,357 cases of infection, of which 1,174,630 men, 1,330,336 women and 2,391 cases that are under investigation, as these data are not provided automatically.