Today seven fewer people are hospitalised, out of a total of 860, 178 of which in intensive care units, where seven people have entered in the last 24 hours.

Not since 22 March, when there were also 16 deaths in the previous 24 hours, had the daily number of deaths been this high.

Most new SARS-CoV-2 infections (1,606) are now registered in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, while 1,314 more people are infected in the North.

Since the start of the pandemic, 943,244 people have been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2.

The 16 deaths in the last 24 hours were registered in the regions of Lisbon (nine), North (four) Algarve (two) and Centre (one).

According to DGS data, 17,248 people have died in Portugal so far from covid-19: 9,056 men and 8,192 women.

According to the health authority, Portugal now has 52,988 active cases (841 more), having recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours 2,765 more people, which increases to 873,008 the number of recovered since the beginning of the pandemic.

The number of contacts under surveillance is 81,377, 1,835 more in the last 24 hours.

The Lisbon and Tagus Valley region now has a total of 369,161 cases of infection and the North region, 365,899, says the DGS.

In the Centre there were 218 new cases (127,427 in total), in the Alentejo there are 71 more cases (32,742 in total), in the Algarve 335 new infections (total of 30,696), in Madeira 33 new cases (10,342) and in the Azores 45 more, for a total of 6,977.

Lisbon and Tagus Valley is the region with the most deaths (7,362), followed by the North (5,386), the Centre (3,036), the Alentejo (977), the Algarve (381), Madeira (70) and the Azores (35).

The regional authorities of the Azores and Madeira publish their data daily, which may not coincide with the information available in the DGS bulletin.

The largest share of new infections is among people aged between 20 and 29 years (919), followed by those aged 30-39 (649), 40 to 49 (526), 10 to 19 (533), up to 9 years (328), 50 to 59 (300), 60 to 69 (166), 70 to 79 (103) and over 80 years (98).

In the last 24 hours eight people over 80 years old died, five between 70 and 79 years old, one between 60 and 69 years old, one between 50 and 59 years old and one between 40 and 49 years old.

The national incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections per 100,000 population in the past 14 days was on Wednesday at 409 and that of the mainland at 421.3.

As for the Rt - which estimates the number of secondary cases of infection resulting from a person with the virus - it stands at 1.09 on the mainland and nationally.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 4,128,543 deaths worldwide, among more than 191.9 million cases of infection by the new coronavirus, according to the most recent assessment by the Agence France-Presse.