Rome: Italy’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 610 in the last 24 hours to 18,279, the highest in the world, even as pressure on the country’s hospitals continued to ease with a fall in the number of patients in intensive care units, the Civil Protection Agency said.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte held a teleconference with business and labour leaders to discuss when Italy can begin to relax the restrictions imposed to contain the disease, Efe news reported. The shutdown was initially meant to last until 13 April, but chances that any significant easing would take place was deemed as virtually non-existent.
“We need to pick sectors that can restart their activity. If scientists confirm it, we might begin to relax some measures already by the end of this month,” Conte told the BBC.
The final decision on when and how to re-open the economy will be made by the Scientific Technical Council that is advising the government on the crisis. The number of new confirmed cases grew 1,615 overnight to 96,877. That increase was larger than the previous day’s, 1,195, and nearly double Tuesday’s figure of 880.
In the US, 11 out of 100 people under the age of 25, 17 per cent of those in the 25 to 45 age group and 21 per cent of those between 45 and 65 years who presented with symptoms have tested positive for coronavirus, according to age-wise testing data available for the first time from the White House on a day when America’s death toll climbed past the 16,500 mark with total confirmed cases more than 462,000.
On the same day, New York State suffered the deadliest blow, posting a record-breaking increase in coronavirus deaths for a third consecutive day even as hospitalisations and intubations slowed, suggesting the curve is finally flattening. The net 200-patient increase in hospitalisations is the lowest since the nightmare began.
White House data is also showing that US men are testing positive at a much higher rate than women. Data on those under 25 years were drawn from a universe of 200,000 tests while more than half a million people in the 25-45 years age group and in the 45-65 age group have been tested, according to Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the White House response to the pandemic.
China has reported 42 new coronavirus cases, including 38 imported infections, taking the total tally to 81,907, health officials said on Friday, as the country started a new trial of re-testing the recovered COVID-19 patients amid heightened concern of a rebound of the deadly disease.
The Chinese health authority on Friday also said that 47 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, including 14 from abroad, were also reported in the mainland.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Friday said 42 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported, including 38 imported cases on Thursday. Four new domestically transmitted cases were reported, with three in Guangdong Province and one in Heilongjiang Province, it said.