Almost 800 people die of coronavirus in Italy in the past 24 hours taking country’s death toll to 4,825 – with 53,500 now diagnosed in crisis-hit country
- Italy’s 4,825 fatalities account for 38.3 per cent of the world’s total 12,700 deaths
- The number of coronavirus infections rose by 6,557 to 53,578, another record
- Fatalities in the northern Lombardy regions around Milan surpassed 3,000
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Italy’s death toll has skyrocketed by 793 to 4,825 in just 24 hours in the worst daily rise the country has seen yet.
Italy’s fatalities account for 38.3 per cent of the world’s total.
The number of coronavirus infections rose by 6,557 to 53,578, another record.
The total number of fatalities in the northern Lombardy regions around Milan surpassed 3,000.
Italy’s death toll has skyrocketed by 793 to 4,825 in just 24 hours in the worst daily rise the country has seen yet
It accounts for nearly two-thirds of Italy’s fatalities.
Italy has reported 1,420 deaths since Friday, a grim figure that suggests the pandemic is breaking through the government’s various containment and social distancing measures.
The Mediterranean nation of 60 million has been under an effective lockdown since March 12, when public gatherings were banned and most stores shuttered.
An employee of the municipal company disinfects Piazza del Duomo in Florence, on March, 21 2020, as part of the measures taken by Italian government to fight against the spread of coronavirus
Police were out in force across the streets of Rome on Saturday, checking documents and fining those outside without a valid reason, such as buying groceries.
Joggers were asked to run around the block of their houses, parks and beaches were closed, and the government in Rome prepared to extend school and other closures into the summer months.
But the outbreak keeps gathering pace in the new global epicentre of a virus that was first reported in December in China and has since transformed the world, straining health care systems, upending lives for millions and pummelling stock markets globally.
Italy’s fatalities account for 38.3 per cent of the world’s total. Pictured: Nurses in protective gear hug at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, Lombardy
The figures released Saturday showed deaths still largely contained to Italy’s richer north, whose world-class healthcare system is creaking but still not breaking.
But it is much better that what is available in the poorer south, whose regions have registered a few dozen deaths each – and which the government in Rome is watching closely.
The Lazio region that includes Rome has recorded a total of 50 deaths and 1,190 infections.
Italy has reported 1,420 deaths since Friday. Pictured: Nurses put on their work gear at the start of their shift on March 12, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan