The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy has jumped by 3,599 to 132,547, while the death toll has risen by 636 to 16,523 in the past 24 hours.
“At the moment, there are 93,187 persons currently infected with the disease, which means an increase of 1,941 compared to yesterday. … Unfortunately, we have registered 636 new deaths”, Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Department, said at a press conference.
The figures released on Monday suggest a rise in the number of daily deaths, after 525 deaths were confirmed by the health authorities on Sunday, the first day since 19 March that the daily the death toll had dropped below 600.
However, Borrelli stated that the fall in the number of patients currently in intensive care was an encouraging sign.
“Out of this number, 3,898 are in intensive care units. I would like to underline that it is the third consecutive day that we have a negative growth of intensive care patients, so it is decreasing”, he said.
The World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 1.2 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with some 67,000 related fatalities, according to WHO data. Europe is currently the most-affected region in the world.