CORONAVIRUS: Italy Witnesses Spike in new Cases

Italy has registered 518 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, up from 177 new cases on Thursday.

402 of Friday’s new cases, 77.6%, were in Lombardy, the hardest hit Italian region. The health department said that 85 coronavirus sufferers have died in Italy in the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll up to 33,774. It said 21 of those deaths were in Lombardy. Thursday’s rise in the death toll was 88.

The department said nine regions registered no new victims: Trentino Alto Adige, Sicily, Abruzzo, Umbria, Sardinia, Valle d’Aosta, Calabria, Molise, and Basilicata. The Civil Protection Department said 163,781 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Italy, a rise of 1,886 in one day.

That compares to Thursday’s increase of 957. It said that 36,976 people are currently infected with the coronavirus here, down 1,453 in a day. That is considerably higher than Thursday’s fall of 868. The total number of COVID-19 cases in Italy, including the currently positive, the deceased, and the recovered, is now 234,531, 316 coronavirus patients are currently in intensive care here, 22 fewer than Thursday.