Italy sees its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases
The number of cases of Covid-19 in Italy has surged higher again.
Some 3,590 more cases of the coronavirus have been reported in a 24-hour period, nearly 100 more than the increase the day before.
The additional infections reported today represent the country’s biggest day-to-day increase.
Italy’s Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli announced the latest number of cases, bringing the total number of people with the new coronavirus to 24,747. The number of deaths had increased by 368 to 1,809.
According to the World Health Organisation, the vast majority of people who get Covid-19 recover within weeks.
Italy’s national health institute chief Silvio Brusaferro said it was not known if Italy was reaching its peak and might start seeing the number of new cases decline.
Meanwhile, the country’s foreign minister said China was sending 150 pulmonary respirators now and more later to help treat seriously ill Covid-19 patients in Italy, the centre of Europe’s coronavirus pandemic.
Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio also said on Sunday that China would be shipping five 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 recorded 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, Mr Di Maio said.
