MILAN – Italy reported 196,224 COVID-19 related cases on Wednesday, against 220,532 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths rose to 313 from 294.
Italy has registered 139,872 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 7.97 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 17,309 on Wednesday, up from 17,067 a day earlier.
There were 156 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 185 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 1,669 from a previous 1,677.
Some 1.19 million tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 1.37 million, the health ministry said.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)