Italy’s coronavirus death toll has today jumped by 662 to 8,165 with more than 6,100 new cases recorded, taking the global total past half a million.
The total number of confirmed cases of the deadly virus has risen to 80,539, almost as many as China, where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in December.
The nation’s Civil Protection Agency reported 662 deaths today, bringing the country’s death toll to 8,165 – the highest in the world.
It comes after Italy’s death toll jumped by 683 to 7,503 on Wednesday, a decline in the daily tally of fatalities following a spike a day earlier.
Also, the death tolls from coronavirus for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have all increased but there is some good news as testing increases and health chiefs begin to get to grips with the spread.
It now stands at 578, up from 465 yesterday.
Testing for the potentially deadly bug appears to be ramping up too, with a total of 104,866 people tested.
This has resulted in a total of 11,658 cases of Covid-19.
There have been a total of 93,208 negative tests.
This follows yesterday’s rise in the death toll, which was the smallest day-on-day increase since March 20.
The rise in deaths from Tuesday to Wednesday was 43, from 422 to 465.
Today’s figures come after Public Health Wales said a further six people who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales have died, bringing the total number of deaths there to 28.
Dr Robin Howe, incident director for the coronavirus outbreak at Public Health Wales, also said a further 113 people had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Wales to 741.
