According to the epidemiological bulletin of the Directorate General of Health (DGS) released today, 331 people are now hospitalised, 13 more than on Thursday, of which 65 are in intensive care units, five more in the last 24 hours.

The four deaths were registered in the regions of Lisbon (3) and North (1), the health authority said, indicating that the victims are three men and a woman over 80 years.

Of the total of 844 new cases registered in the last 24 hours, 400 were in children aged between 0 and 9 years old, according to data from the health authority.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, 18,153 people have died in Portugal and 1,088,977 cases of infection have been recorded.

The highest number of deaths continues to be concentrated among the elderly over 80 years old (11,846), followed by the age group between 70 and 79 years old (3,886).

Of the total number of fatalities recorded so far in Portugal, 9,522 were men and 8,631 women.

In the last 24 hours, 85 more active cases of Covid-19 were recorded, for a total of 31,540, DGS data said, according to which 755 people were reported recovered, bringing the total number of people recovered since the start of the pandemic to 1,039,284.

The number of contacts under surveillance by the health authorities rose by 238 to 22,168.

The new coronavirus has already infected at least 584,391 women and 503,839 men in Portugal. There are still 747 cases of unknown sex, which are under investigation, as this information is not provided automatically, explains the DGS.

Among the new infections the age group zero 0 to 9 years (400 more cases) stands out, followed by 20 to 29 years (142 more), 30 to 39 years (120 more), 50 to 59 years (110 more), 40 to 49 years (98 more), 10 to 19 years (88 more), 60 to 69 years (72 more), over 80 years (68 more) and 70 to 79 years (56 more).

In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, 332 new infections have been reported, with 420,572 cases and 7,726 deaths counted so far in this geographical area.

The North region has registered 239 new infections by SARS-CoV-2, totalling 415,833 cases of infection and 5,598 deaths since the start of the pandemic crisis.

According to the data, another 156 cases were registered in the Central region, totalling 146,752 infections and 3,179 deaths.

In the Alentejo, 26 new cases of infection were reported, totalling 40,134 infections and 1,052 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Today's bulletin from the DGS also reports 26 new cases in the Algarve region, accumulating 43,896 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 479 deaths.

The Autonomous Region of Madeira counted 19 new cases, adding 12,648 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 27 new cases, which brings to 9,322 infections since the beginning of the pandemic and 45 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 4,979,103 deaths worldwide, among more than 245.47 million infections by the new coronavirus recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest balance sheet from Agence France-Presse.