The expression of the pandemic on national territory continues to be characterised by a high degree of heterogeneity. Some of the results obtained in this context:
• Since the beginning of March, the preliminary number of deaths in 2020 for the country as a whole, as measured over the last four weeks, has remained higher than in the same reference period (average for the same period in 2018 and 2019). In 167 of the 308 Portuguese municipalities, where 68% of the population lives, the number of deaths between 14 September and 11 October 2020 was higher than the corresponding reference value.
• The analysis of mortality, controlling for the effect of the age structure of the population by calculating age-standardised mortality rates, has also shown an increase in the incidence of mortality from March to September 2020 compared to the same reference period in most of the regions.
• On 21 October, the highest number of new cases (cumulative values for the last 7 days) in Portugal was recorded: 16,247 new cases (corresponding to 15.8 new cases per 10,000 inhabitants), which represents an increase of 165% compared to 7 October, the reference date for the last press release.
• On 18 October, the date of the last data update at municipality level, 13,947 new cases were registered (corresponding to 13.5 new cases per 10,000 inhabitants) and at NUTS II region level, this value was exceeded only by the Norte region (14.1 new cases per 10,000 inhabitants). The new cases registered in the last 7 days in this region represented 36% of the total new cases observed for the country. It should also be noted that the sub-regions Tâmega e Sousa and Terras de Trás-os-Montes, both located in the Norte region, were the only ones to exceed the national average of new cases per 10 thousand inhabitants.
• The analysis focused on the last two weeks highlights for the Metropolitan Area of Lisboa (AML) growth rates lower than those observed for the country, but for the Metropolitan Area of Porto (AMP) the growth rates were higher than the national ones. In the week ending in October 18 this rate was +64.3% in the AML and +95.5% in the AMP while the growth in the country was +73.7%, thus registering a decrease in the relative importance of the number of new cases (last 7 days) in the case of the AML and an increase in the relative importance of the number of new cases in the AMP.
• On 18 October 2020, 34 municipalities registered a number of new confirmed cases of COVID-19 disease (last 7 days) per 10,000 inhabitants above the national average, of which 24 belong to the Norte region, where 39% of the region's population lives. Of these, six municipalities with more than 25 new cases per 10,000 inhabitants stood out: Paços de Ferreira (99.6), Lousada (55.4), Felgueiras (27.3) and Penafiel (25.2) in Tâmega e Sousa and the municipalities of Paredes (27.9) and Porto (26.0) in rhe Metropolitan Area of Porto.
• In the Metropolitan Area of Lisboa, four municipalities scored values above the national average (representing 46% of the region's population): Sintra (16.7), Lisbon (15.3), Cascais (14.7) and Loures (13.9).