Italy Reports 837 Virus Fatalities, Health Official Says Its at the ‘Plateau’

Nurses put on their personal protective equipment before starting to work on the preparation of the intensive care unit in the new COVID-19 Hospital in Verduno, near Alba, Northwestern Italy on March 29, 2020. (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)

The death toll from COVID-19  in Italy rose by 837 in the past day to 12,428, health authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

About 77,635 patients are currently infected, showing an increase of 2,107 new cases on Tuesday. In the past 24 hours, 1,109 people have recovered from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus. So far, 15,729 people have recovered.

In total, 105,792 cases have been confirmed in the country, including those who have recovered, died, and people who are infected at present, according to health officials in a report from ANSA.

Officials reported 812 deaths from the virus on Monday, although they stressed there was a dramatic decrease in the number of cases in the same time period. The case number dropped to 4,050, which is the lowest number since March 17, after more than 5,200 cases were reported Sunday and 5,974 cases were confirmed on Saturday.

Italy’s COVID-19 curve has reached its plateau but the country needs to remain on lockdown, according to Silvio Brusaferro, the head of the National Higher Health Institute.

“The curve tells us that we’re at the plateau. That doesn’t mean we’ve hit the peak and that it is over but that we must start the descent and you start the descent by applying the measures in force,” he said, reported ANSA.

“More rapid tests are needed,” Brusaferro said, adding that “we are developing the technologies to be able to do it.”

The novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, first emerged in mainland China last year before the CCP attempted to cover up the outbreak and mismanaged the crisis, leading to a worldwide pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world have been infected and tens of thousands have died.