(Reuters) – Italy reported 376 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 318 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 19,749 from 13,902 the day before.
Some 345,336 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 184,684, the health ministry said.
Italy has registered 100,479 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.1 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 22,393 on Tuesday, up from 21,831 a day earlier.
There were 278 new admissions to intensive care units, up from 231 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 2,756 from a previous 2,700.
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating quickly in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by FRancesca Piscioneri)
