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The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Italy decreased to 2,793 on Friday, 242 fewer from a day earlier, the country's Civil Protection Department said.
Active infections stood at 21,543, after a drop of 1,558 patients from the figure on the previous day.
Of all those actively infected, 161 patients are currently in intensive care, seven fewer from a day earlier, while 2,632 are hospitalized with symptoms (down by 235), according to the fresh data.
The remaining 18,750, or 87 percent of all those who tested positive, are quarantined at home with no symptoms or mild symptoms.
While Italy has been witnessing a downward trend in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since the first half of April, a drop below the 3,000-threshold was seen as a reassuring signal, especially so considering several weeks have now passed since most COVID-19 restrictions were eased.
Hospitalized coronavirus patients amounted to 6,523 on June 1, drastically down from 19,147 registered on May 1, according to official statistics.
Friday saw 1,363 new recoveries registered over the past 24 hours, bringing that total to 181,907 since the pandemic broke out on Feb. 21.
Some 47 new fatalities were also recorded, taking the country's toll to 34,561.
Overall, the assessed cases in the country totaled 238,011, after two false positives were deleted from statistics in the Abruzzo region, and 397 in Sicily, the Civil Protection stated.
Also on Friday, Italy's National Health Institute (ISS) published an updated report on the characteristics of COVID-19 patients who died, independently from those with pre-existing diseases, based on data concerning 33,309 fatalities.
The average age of patients dying of the coronavirus infection was 80 years, while the median age was 82 years, 20 years higher compared to that of all those who tested positive, according to the findings.
Furthermore, 13,913 were female, or 41.8 percent of all the fatalities considered, with a median age of 85 compared with 79 for men, the ISS noted.
The ISS also released data on 3,510 patients who died in hospital, for whom it was possible to analyze their clinic charts.
A total of 59.7 percent of them had three or more pre-existing health conditions, 21.5 percent had two, and 14.7 percent presented a single pre-existing condition. Only 4.2 percent of the samples from patients analyzed indicated no other health problems, beside the coronavirus infection
Finally, fever, dyspnoea, and cough were the most commonly observed symptoms among COVID-19 patients who died, while diarrhea and hemoptysis were less common, and some 5.7 percent of patients did not present any symptoms at all when admitted to hospital, according to the report.