The number of virus deaths in Italy has surged by 627 in 24 hours, raising the total to 4,032, according to health authorities in an update on Friday.
The total number of CCP virus cases in Italy rose to 47,021 from a previous 41,035, said Italy’s Civil Protection, as reported by Italian daily Corriere Della Sera. The northern region of Lombardy has reported the highest number of cases at more than 22,000, while nearby Veneto has reported around 4,000.
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
Earlier this month, Italian authorities implemented a nationwide lockdown—the first to do so in Europe—as daily cases and deaths escalated. Friday’s death toll is the highest recorded by the country since the pandemic began.
So far, 5,129 people have fully recovered compared to 4,440 the day before, officials said, reported Reuters. There are now 2,655 people in intensive care, up more than 200 over the previous day.
“We are confronting the biggest COVID emergency after Wuhan,” the Chinese city where the virus emerged last year, said Dr. Luca Lorini, head of intensive care at Bergamo’s main hospital, reported The Associated Press. “The numbers tell us this.”
“When the virus arrived here, there was no containment and it spread through the valleys very quickly. … Some said it was the normal flu. We doctors knew it was not,” Lorini said of when the CCP virus appeared in northern Italy in February.
Residents now must have written permission from the government to leave their homes. But the government said on Friday it is considering more restrictions.
“In the next 24 to 48 hours, new restrictions are possible,” Italy’s minister of regional affairs, Francesco Boccia, said, according to The Local. The report said authorities might ban open-air activities.
As of Friday, Officials in Lombardy have called on the government to deploy the army to help enforce such measures.
“Unfortunately, even today the statistics aren’t going in the right direction, neither in terms of new infections or in terms of deaths,” Lombardy’s president Attilio Fontana said in a press conference Friday, according to The Local.
Spain’s emergency chief on Friday reported that more than 200 people died of the CCP virus in a 24-hour period, with a death toll of more than 1,000. Nearly 20,000 people have been infected, becoming the second-worst-hit country in Europe.
