According to the epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate General of Health (DGS), released today, 345 people are now hospitalised, 12 less than on Thursday, of which 66 are in intensive care units, seven less than in the last 24 hours.

Six of the nine deaths occurred in the Lisbon region, two in the Centre region and one in Alentejo.

The fatalities were people aged between 70 and 79 years (4), over 80 years (3) and between 60 and 69 years (2).

Since March 2020, 18,193 people have died and 1,095,337 cases of infection have been counted.

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated among the elderly over 80 years old (11,873), followed by the age group between 70 and 79 years old (3,895).

Of the total number of fatal victims recorded to date in Portugal 9,537 were men and 8,656 women.

The data released by the DGS also shows 387 more active cases, for a total of 32,867, and that 893 people were reported recovered from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, which increases the national total to 1,044,277 recovered.

In the last 24 hours, the number of contacts under surveillance by health authorities has risen (up 253) to 23,281.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 587,564 women and 507,023 men in Portugal, according to data from the DGS, according to which there are 750 cases of unknown sex, which are under investigation, since this information is not provided automatically.

Among the new infections the age group between 40 and 49 years stands out (199 more), followed by the 30 to 39 years (194 more), 20 to 29 years (186 more), 50 to 59 years (160 more), 0 to 9 years (148 more), 10 to 19 years (133 more), 60 to 69 years (127 more), 70 to 79 years (78 more) and more than 80 years (64 more).

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 461 new infections have been reported, with 422,901 cases and 7,748 deaths counted so far in this geographical area.

The North region registered 369 new infections by SARS-CoV-2, totalling 417,430 cases of infection and 5,599 deaths since the start of the pandemic crisis.

The Centre region recorded another 301 cases, totalling 148,062 infections and 3,190 deaths.

These three regions account for 87.7 percent of new cases of infection in Portugal in the last 24 hours.

In the Alentejo, 23 new cases of infection were reported, totalling 40,296 infections and 1,055 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In the Algarve region, today's bulletin from the DGS reports 88 new cases, accumulating 44,318 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 481 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira counted 35 new cases, adding 12,897 infections and 74 deaths due to the covid-19 disease since March 2020.

In the last 24 hours, and according to the DGS, the Azores registered 12 new cases, which brings to 9,433 contagions since the beginning of the pandemic and 46 deaths due to the disease.

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

Covid-19 has caused at least 5,028,536 deaths worldwide, among more than 248.54 million infections by the new coronavirus recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest balance sheet from the agency France-Presse.