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The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Italy declined for the second consecutive day, Italian health officials announced Sunday, while patients in intensive care barely rose.
Sunday marks the third time since the coronavirus outbreak hit Italy that the death toll fell for two days in a row, though it has not yet fallen for three consecutive days.
Sunday's reported death total was 756, down from Saturday's 889 and Friday's 969. Friday's total was the highest one-day death total recorded in Italy since the pandemic first broke out in its north on Feb. 21.
The number of patients in intensive care climbed to 3,906, just 50 more than a day earlier.
The number of new active infections nationally rose by 3,815, higher than 3,651 a day earlier. But Italy's Civil Defense head Angelo Borrelli said that the number of new cases -- which peaked on March 21 -- could be starting to plateau more than two weeks into the national lockdown.
"It is more important to look at trends than at specific numbers," Borrelli said. "The numbers cannot tell the story on their own."
Borrelli also said the need for protective equipment remained high, though he said that with the country mobilized for production those needs were being met.
"We still have a very significant need for protective masks," Borrelli said at Sunday's briefing. "But we have also seen a significant arrival of new materials and I am confident we are going to be able to fill this gap."
Also on Sunday, Italian Minister of Health Roberto Speranza said that while statistics from recent days have been encouraging it was far too early to change policies on the national lockdown.
"We are still in the middle of a national lockdown, and it would be a serious mistake for us to drop our guard right now," Speranza said. "We have made important sacrifices that would be wasted if we stopped down."
Speranza said there should be no reduction in the diligence of Italians in the coming days and weeks.
"Epidemiologists say we are seeing the first signs of containment, but this process will take time and happen very gradually," the minister said.
Italy announced late Saturday it would begin the process of distributing as much as 400 million euros (440 million U.S. dollars) in special food coupons to Italians to help them make ends meet during the crisis, which has left many Italians without a source of income.
A day after Italy's total death toll topped 10,000, the country's news media focused on the significance of that grim milestone, noting that around one-third of the worldwide death toll from the pandemic so far has been contained within Italy's borders.
As of Sunday, 10,779 people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. That is more than Spain and China, the next two countries suffering the most fatalities, combined.
(CGTN)
