Italy records almost 1,000 virus deaths in one-day record

The infection rate, however, continued its downward trend, with the civil protection agency reporting nearly 86,500 confirmed cases in Italy -- a 7.4 per cent increase, down from around 8.0 per cent in previous days.

Rome: Italy recorded a shocking spike in coronavirus deaths Friday with 969 new victims, the worst daily record for any country since the pandemic began.

The infection rate, however, continued its downward trend, with the civil protection agency reporting nearly 86,500 confirmed cases in Italy -- a 7.4 percent increase, down from around 8.0 percent in previous days.

More than 3,00,000 cases of the new coronavirus were recorded in Europe with more than half registered in Italy (86,498) and Spain (64,059).

There were a total of 3,05,851 cases in Europe including 18,289 deaths making it the worst-hit continent. Asia was in second place with 1,02,043 cases of which 3,683 were fatal.

(With inputs from AFP)