PremiumMilan: The death toll from coronavirus in Lombardy, Italy's worst affected region, rose by 252 to 1,218 on Sunday, from 966 a day earlier, the region's senior health official said.
Full numbers for the whole of Italy are due to be released later on Sunday.
Italy's foreign minister says China is sending 150 pulmonary respirators now and more later to help treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients in Italy, the center of Europe's coronavirus pandemic.
The health systems there and in other rich northern regions like Emilia Romagna and Veneto at the epicentre of the Italian outbreak are considered among the best in Europe, but have been pushed to their limits.
"The numbers have continued to grow. We're close to the moment where we will have no more intensive care beds," Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana told SkyTG24 television.
Most cases in Lombardy have been in small towns in areas like Bergamo and Brescia, but there have been fears of a major spread into Milan itself, which could overwhelm hospitals.
"The big challenge will be to see how far we can succeed in keeping Milan, the metropolitan area, away from a mass phenomenon with the disease," said Massimo Galli, head of the infectious diseases unit at Milan's Sacco hospital.
Authorities have been working to set up hundreds of intensive care beds in a specially created facility in the Fiera Milano exhibition centre but are still waiting for sufficient respirators and qualified personnel.
Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also said Sunday that China will be shipping 5 million masks for medical staff. A day earlier, the top health official in the hard-hit region of Lombardy complained publicly about the quality of the masks that Italy's central government had shipped to hospitals in his area, likening them to toilet paper. Lombardy has 13,272 infections and 1,218 deaths alone.
China, which appears to have turned the corner on its own COVID-19 outbreak, will also be sending medical crews to aid the Italians, Di Maio said.
While the virus has begun spreading rapidly across Europe, Italy remains the second most heavily affected country after China, where the virus first emerged.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
