MILAN (Reuters) – Italy reported 297 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday against 339 the previous day, 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 performed the day before, compared with the previous 339,635, the health ministry said.
Italy has recorded 99,271 COVID-19-related deaths since its outbreak in February last year, the second highest number of deaths in Europe after Britain and the seventh largest in the world. The country has reported 3.02 million cases to date.
Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – were at 20,374 on Friday, down from 20,157 the previous day.
There were 222 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 232 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients has increased from 2,475 prior to 2,525.
When the second wave of the epidemic in Italy was accelerating rapidly in the first half of November, hospital admissions were increasing by about 1,000 a day, while intensive care occupation was increasing by about 100 a day.
(Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia, edited by Agnieszka Flak)