Italy’s Covid-19 death toll tops 20,000 as new contagion rate drops

ITALY reported its coronavirus death toll has risen to more than 20,000 today Monday, but at the same time the number of new contagions has dropped.

The country’s civil protection service reported a further 566 fatalities related to Covid-19, up from 431 yesterday, bringing the total to 20,465. This is the second highest number in the world after the US.

Meanwhile the rise in new infections as gone down from 2 per cent 24 hours earlier to 1.3 per cent.

Another 3,153 people have tested positive for the virus since Sunday, the lowest figure for six days. This compares with 4,092 new cases in the previous 24 hours and puts the overall number at 103,616.

A further indication that Italy is beginning to move in the right direction in its fight against the virus is the news that that the number of coronavirus patients being treated in intensive care has fallen for the 10th day in a row.

The number of patients making a recovery now stands at 35,435.

“We see positive signals, but the number of deaths is still high, as it reflects previous cases of contagion,” the head of the infectious diseases department at Rome’s national health institute Giovanni Rezza commented at a news briefing.

On Friday Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced Italy’s national lockdown will remain in place until May 3 with a few exceptions like book and baby clothes shops, despite mounting pressure from political opposition and the business community.

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Written by

Cathy Elelman

Cathy Elelman is the local writer for the Costa de Almeria edition of the Euro Weekly News.

Based in Mojacar for the last 21 years, Cathy is very much part of the local community and is always well and truly up on all the latest news and events going on in this region of Spain.

Her top goals are to do the best job she can informing the local English-speaking community, visitors to the area and the wider world about about the news in Almeria, to learn something new every day, and to embrace very new challenge this fast-changing world brings her way.

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