LISBON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Portugal has climbed to 20,206, health authorities said on Sunday.
There were 521 new cases in the last 24 hours, while fatalities rose from 687 to 714.
According to the latest epidemiological bulletin from the Directorate-General for Health, 4,959 people are still waiting for results of laboratory tests to determine if they are infected with the new coronavirus.
At the moment, there are 1,243 people hospitalized in Portugal, 224 of whom are in intensive care units.
The lethality rate remained at 3.5 percent, said Health Minister Marta Temido at a daily press conference.
A total of 249,000 tests have been carried out since March 1, and the number of tests increased in April to around 9,000 per day, said the minister.
The minister confirmed on Saturday that the average rate of contagion by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, currently stands at 0.91 in Portugal, which means that each infected person infects less than one other person, thanks to the containment measures.
She said that the average number of cases generated from an infected person was 2.08 between Feb. 21 and March 16, adding that the data collected so far "continue to make it possible to estimate that the maximum incidence has been in the past between March 23 and 25." Enditem
