Italy Reports 601 CCP Virus Deaths in 24 Hours

It's the Second Day a Smaller Increase in COVID-19 Deaths Have Been Recorded

Two nurses walk in front of the Emergency Room of the local hospital in Cremona, near Milan, Italy, on March 20, 2020. (Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

Italian health authorities reported 601 new CCP virus deaths in a 24 hour period, a decline from the previous day’s death total of 651, as some officials expressed cautious optimism that the trending is starting to slow.

Italy’s Civil Protection reported there were 4,789 new cases for a total of more than 63,000. More than 6,000 deaths have also been recorded to date.

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.

On Sunday, Italian officials reported more than 650 deaths in a 24-hour period. The day before that, the country announced its daily highest death toll, 793, after reporting 627 deaths on Friday.

“Today the downward trend [in deaths] has been confirmed,” Giulio Gallera, a local official in the Lombardy region, said in a press conference, according to ANSA. “We can say it’s the first positive day” although it is “not the time to sing victory,” he said.

“Today we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” he added of the latest trend.

Hospital employees wearing masks and gear tend to patients lying in bed at a temporary emergency structure set up outside the accident and emergency department, where any new arrivals presenting suspect new coronavirus symptoms will be tested, at the Brescia hospital, Lombardy, Italy, on March 13, 2020. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)

Health authorities have said in reports that it will take a few more days before they will know if Italy is starting a new, positive trend in its fight against the CCP virus.

Local police also announced they will use drones to “monitor the operations of citizens’ movements” in an attempt to prevent Italians from breaking quarantine, ANSA reported. Earlier this month, Italy’s leadership announced the strictest lockdown in all of Europe.

Franco Locatelli, president of Italy’s Higher Health Council, told reporters on Sunday that with the new stringent measures announced this weekend, Italy had exhausted all the possible ways it could to limit personal and professional contact. That came as Italy announced that the increase in both infections and deaths had showed the first sign of narrowing in the previous 24 hours.

“Let’s continue to keep social distance,″ Locatelli said. ’’Let’s adopt these measures, let’s manage our behavior and ... certainly we will get the results we are hoping for.″

On March 9, the government extended the lockdown to the entire country. But enforcement was still a matter of interpretation.  Two days later, on March 11, all commercial activities except for those providing necessities were closed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.