According to the daily epidemiological bulletin, 2,249 people are hospitalised today, a significant decrease in the last 24 hours - 64 less than on Wednesday.

There was also a decrease in those hospitalised in intensive care units, who are now 147 (seven less than the previous day).

The number of active cases rose to 558,129, a sharp rise of 42,167 more cases.

In the past 24 hours, 23,498 people were reported recovered, for a total of 1,865,651, and a further 26,524 contacts were placed on surveillance, which now total 573,235.

Since March 2020, 2,443,818 people have been infected in Portugal with SARS-CoV-2 and 19,744 Covid-19-associated deaths have been declared.

Of the people with Covid-19 who died, 10,383 were men (+24) and 9,361 were women (+17).

By age, 23 of the people who died were over 80 years old, there was also one death in the age group between 30 and 39 years old, seven between 60 and 69 years old and 10 between 70 and 79 years old.

Most of the new infections were diagnosed in the North, with 27,594 infections (with a total of 932,779 cases and 6,004 deaths with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic).

In the Lisbon region, there are now 18,590 more infections, totalling 910,810 infections and 8,323 deaths associated with Covid-19 since March 2020, while the Centre region records 11,430 new cases (336,655 in total and 3,469 deaths).

In the Algarve, 2,883 more people were infected in the last 24 hours (total of 93,525 contagions and 622 deaths with Covid-19) and in Alentejo 2,713 more (total of 81,018 cases and 1,116 deaths).

In the autonomous region of the Azores, 1,552 infections were diagnosed in the last 24 hours, for a total of 28,113 cases since the start of the pandemic and 56 deaths attributed to ~Covid-19, while in Madeira there were 944 new infections, for a total of 60,624 and 154 deaths with Covid-19.

By age, 10,156 of the contagions in the last 24 hours were in children up to 9 years old; 10,853 in the 10-19 age group; 8,671 between 20 and 29 years old; 11,279 between 30 and 39 years old; 12,633 between 40 and 49 years old; 5,707 between 50 and 59 years old; 3,132 between 60 and 69 years old; 1,837 between 70 and 79 years old; and 1,401 in people 80 years old or older.

SARS-CoV-2 has already infected at least 1,145,045 men and 1,296,120 women in Portugal. There are still 2,359 cases of unknown sex that are under investigation, as these data are not provided automatically.

The national incidence of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections rose to 5,728.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as did the transmissibility index (Rt), which is now at 1.17, according to data the DGS released on Wednesday.

The national incidence rate went from 5,322.6 cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants at 14 days recorded on Monday to 5,728.4 recorded on Wednesday.

After having been declining in recent weeks, the Rt - which estimates the number of secondary cases of infection resulting from each person carrying the virus - rose again, from 1.15 nationwide on Monday to 1.17 on Wednesday.

Rt data and the incidence of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants at 14 days - indicators that make up the pandemic monitoring risk matrix - are updated by health authorities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.