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Italy recorded 26 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, the lowest daily increase in the country since March 3 as COVID-19 overall situation remained "at a low level of criticality," according to official monitoring reports unveiled on Monday.
So far, a total of 34,371 people have lost their lives to the coronavirus-caused disease in Italy, according to the daily bulletin of the national Civil Protection Department. It was the lowest daily death toll since March 3 when the country recorded 27 COVID-19 victims.
With 640 new recoveries during the same 24-hour period, 177,010 people have recovered since the pandemic officially broke out in the country on Feb. 21, according to the bulletin.
The latest data published by the department confirmed the downward trend in active COVID-19 infections. According to the bulletin, Italy has had 25,909 active infections as of Monday, a decrease by 365 cases compared to the previous day.
Of these cases, 207 are currently in intensive care, down by two patients, and 3,489 are hospitalized with symptoms, down by 105.
Some 86 percent of all those active infections remain isolated at home without symptoms or with mild symptoms.
The total number of assessed cases, including active infections, recoveries, and fatalities, stood at 237,290, an increase of 303 new cases compared to Sunday, said the bulletin.
Meanwhile, the monitoring report unveiled by the Health Ministry and the National Institute of Health (ISS) provided a picture of the pandemic as detected in the week between June 1 and June 7, after the phase of reopening started on May 18.
"The general picture on transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 infection and its impact in Italy remains at a low level of criticality on the whole," the report stated.
"A general decrease in the number of (active) cases was observed, and there were no signs of health services being overloaded," it added.
The monitoring activity showed cases of infection that -- considering the time between exposure to the virus, the diagnosis, and the following notification -- were largely contracted two to three weeks earlier, averagely between May 11 and May 25, according to the researchers.
Despite the good general picture, the ISS and the Health Ministry warned the virus was still circulating in the country, and this required both to keep attention on the chances of new outbreaks and to strictly observe safety rules such as the use of face masks, hand washing, and social distancing.
"New cases of infection were diagnosed in almost all of the peninsula during the monitored week," the report said.
"These findings, which in part are due to intense screening activity being done and investigation of cases, with the identification and monitoring of close contacts, show the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy is not over."
Finally -- and although fully agreeing with the need of keeping strict safety rules compliance -- Italy's deputy health minister on Monday sounded mildly optimistic while talking to local media about the end of most of the strict lockdown measures.
"Even after the reopening, the feared second wave of the contagion does not seem to be occurring," Pierpaolo Sileri told state-run RAI RADIO 1.
