Italy's coronavirus death toll tops 10,000

The toll in Italy which has suffered more deaths than any other country now stands at 10,023. An additional 5,974 infections brought to 92,472 the number of people who have officially tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy since the crisis began.

Rome: Italy's death toll from the novel coronavirus shot past 10,000 on Saturday with 889 new deaths, the country's civil protection service said.

The toll in Italy which has suffered more deaths than any other country now stands at 10,023. An additional 5,974 infections brought to 92,472 the number of people who have officially tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy since the crisis began last month.

Italy’s COVID-19 deaths are down slightly from the previous day.

That compares to 969 a day earlier which was a one-day high in the country which has the world’s highest number of deaths of persons with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The day-to-day rise in new cases was just under 6,000, about the same as the previous day’s figure. Overall, Italy has at least 92,472 cases of COVID-19 and days ago surpassed the total of China where the outbreak began in early 2020.

The current national lock-down decree expires on April 3, but health experts have said they need to try to contain contagion in the outbreak will likely last weeks beyond that.

(With inputs from AP)