The Civil Protection Department said Wednesday that 26,491 people have recovered from the coronavirus in Italy, 2,099 more than Tuesday for the biggest daily rise since the start of the emergency.

Tuesday’s rise in recoveries was 1,555.
    Coronavirus Emergency Commissioner and Civil Protection Chief Angelo Borrelli added that “the recovered in the last 10 days are equal to 50 per cent of the total since the start of the epidemic”.

    He said 17,669 people have died with the coronavirus in Italy, 542 more than Tuesday. Tuesday’s rise was 604.

    Borrelli said 95,262 people are currently infected with COVID-19 here, 1,195 more than Tuesday. That was up from Tuesday’s daily rise of 880 after two days of significant falls.

    The data confirms the impression that, after month of stringent lockdown measures, the spread of the deadly virus is slowing.

    But Borrelli warned that “we must keep our guard high and implement all the behavior advised by the experts to avoid the spread of the virus”.

A 104-year-old Italian woman who survived the 1918 Spanish Flu has become the world’s oldest person to survive the coronavirus.

Ada Zanusso fell ill at her nursing home in Biella in northern Italy on March 17, eight days after the Government imposed a lockdown on the country.

She was tested positive for COVID-19 after experiencing a relentless bout of vomiting, fever, and difficulty with breathing last month.

Carla Furno Marchese, Ada’s doctor, said: “She is up and about and not lying in bed and she can walk to her chair.

“She has lost none of her lucidity and intelligence. Her recovery is a great joy for us and a sign of good hope for all that are suffering in these difficult days.”

The good news comes as Italian officials said yesterday they may soon ease restrictions after the daily coronavirus death toll fell.

Sunday’s 525 COVID-19 fatalities reported by the civil protection service were the Mediterranean country’s lowest since 427 deaths were registered on March 19.

They represented a decline of 23 percent from the 681 deaths reported on Saturday.

Source Reuters

Italy reported its lowest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths for nearly two weeks on Saturday and said the number of patients in intensive care had fallen for the first time.

Officials urged the country not to flout strict lockdown measures they said were starting to show results, although new cases rose by 4,805 on Saturday which was slightly higher than recent daily increases.

The Civil Protection department reported 681 deaths, bringing the total to 15,632 since the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic in northern Italy on Feb. 21. It was the lowest daily rise in deaths since March 23.

The total number of confirmed cases rose to 124,632 from 119,827 reported on Friday but for the first time, the number of patients in badly stretched intensive care units fell, with 3,994 patients being treated, down 74 from 4,068 on Friday.

“This is an important piece of news because it allows our hospitals to breathe,” Civil Protection head Angelo Borelli told a regular daily briefing where he has announced the grim daily tally of the world’s most deadly outbreak of the disease.

For days, Italian officials have said that broadly stable rises in the number of cases suggested that the outbreak had reached a plateau and that the numbers would begin to go down – if strict lockdown measures were respected.

But with Easter approaching and video footage circulating on social media of groups walking outside in cities including Naples, Rome and Milan, there were fears that the signs of progress were leading more people to flout the rules.

“Some images spread on social media, which show a relaxation in the behaviour of some people – fortunately only a few – , should not be taken as an example, they should be deplored,” said Domenico Arcuri, the government’s special commissioner for the coronavirus emergency.

“We can’t have the idea that we’ve already reached the moment to return to normal,” he said.

The government of Lombardy, the northern region at the epicentre of the crisis where more than 49,000 cases have been recorded, made a similar plea and issued a directive ordering people to cover their mouth and nose whenever they go outside.

Italy is still one of the countries worst affected by the new coronavirus, accounting for almost a quarter of worldwide deaths from COVID-19, the highly infectious disease associated with the virus.

But as more countries in Europe have reported severe outbreaks of their own, it has become less of an outlier.

As the case numbers have flattened in Italy, there has been increasing discussion about eventually rolling back a lockdown that has closed most businesses and slammed the brakes on an already fragile economy.

With the government looking at ways to protect the economy, a senior official said it planned to extend its powers to protect key companies from foreign takeover.

Source Ansa

Rome, March 30 –

Italy registered 812 coronavirus deaths on Monday but the data presented by the civil protection department also seemed to back the impression that the spread of COVID-19 here is slowing.

    It said 75,528 people in Italy are infected with the coronavirus, 1,648 more than yesterday. Sunday’s rise had been more than double that, 3,815.

    Up to now 11,591 people have died with the coronavirus in Italy, up 812, compared to Sunday’s daily rise of 756.

    Civil Protection chief and Coronavirus Emergency Commissioner Angelo Borrelli said Monday “today we register 1,590 recovered, the highest (daily) figure since the start of the coronavirus emergency”.
    He said the total who had been cured was now up to 14,620.

    Italy on Monday passed the 100,000 mark for the total number of people to have been infected with the coronavirus.

Including the deceased and those who have recovered, the number is now 101,739, 40 days after the discovery of ‘patient one’ at Codogno in Lombardy.