Italy coronavirus deaths rise by 602 in a day, lifting total death toll to 6,078
2 min read 23 Mar 2020, 11:50 PM ISTHowever, the virus-ravaged country records smaller increase in cases for second straight dayAs of Monday, Italy had a total of 59,138 virus cases as compared to China's 81,496
PremiumRome: The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has grown by 602 to 6,078, the head of the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday, an 11% increase but the smallest rise in numerical terms since Thursday, suggesting a clear downward trend.
On Sunday, 651 people died. That followed 793 on Saturday and 627 on Friday.
Data released by Italy's Civil Protection agency on Monday showed 4,789 new cases, nearly 700 fewer than the day-to-day increase of 5,560 new cases reported Sunday.
The number of deaths also did not rise by as much. There were just over 600 registered on Monday compared to 651 on Sunday.
Italy has been anxious to see the day-to-day figures for new cases and deaths go down as its health system struggles under the weight of the world's largest COVID-19 outbreak outside of China.
As of Monday, Italy had a total of 59,138 virus cases as compared to China's 81,496.
The total number of confirmed cases in Italy rose to 63,927 on Monday from a previous 59,138, an increase of 8%, the Civil Protection Agency said -- the lowest rise in percentage terms since the contagion came to light on Feb. 21.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 7,432 had fully recovered on Monday compared to 7,024 the day before. There were 3,204 people in intensive care against a previous 3,009.
The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy remained in a critical situation, with a total of 3,776 deaths and 28,761 cases. That compared with 3,456 deaths and 27,206 cases reported up to Sunday.
Health authorities have said it will be a few more days before they will know if Italy is at the beginning of a positive trend.
A top national health official, Silvio Brusaferro, resisted being too optimistic, saying that the improvements registered Monday were due to actions taken at the beginning of the month, not in recent days.
‘’We need more consecutive results to confirm the trend, to be more certain that we are in a favorable situation.," Brusaferro said.
He stressed that while he favorably viewed the situation, “I don’t feel like taking one side or the other to confirm that it is there or not. We can take note of what we see today.’’
In Milan, the capital of Lombardy, by far Italy’s worst-hit region, local health officials expressed moderate optimistic that day-to-day increases of both positive test results and of new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 were smaller. But they expressed renewed worry about the need for additional intensive care beds.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
