MILAN (Reuters) – Italy reported 297 coronavirus-related deaths the previous day, reported 339, the health ministry said, while the daily count of new infections rose to 24,036 from 22,865 the previous day.
About 378,463 tests for COVID-19 were done in the past day, compared to a previous 339,635, the health ministry said.
Italy has registered 99,271 deaths related to COVID-19 since the outbreak in February last year, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh highest in the world. The country has so far reported 3.02 million cases.
Patients in the hospital with COVID-19 – not those in intensive care – rose 20,374 on Friday, up from 20,157 a day earlier.
There were 222 new admissions in intensive care units, lower than 232 Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 2,525 from a previous 2,475.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic accelerated rapidly in the first half of November, hospital admissions rose by about 1,000 a day, while occupancy of intensive care increased by about 100 a day.
(Edited by Maria Pia Quaglia, edited by Agnieszka Flak)