Cover photo: pietroluca99 (Flickr)

Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy rose by 431 today, the lowest daily increase since 19th March.

While the deaths are still high, today’s figures will raise hope that Italy’s efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus are bearing fruit and that the country is on a downwards trend.

It’s a sharp decline from the 619 COVID-19 related deaths that Italy recorded yesterday and less than half the 919 it confirmed on 27th March, which remains its deadliest day so far. Its daily average of deaths over the past seven days now stands at 573.

A further 4,092 people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours but this is being attributed to a widespread testing strategy. Indeed, despite the number of new cases, the number of hospitalised patients declined by 297 to 27,847 people and the number of people in intensive care declines by 38 to 3,343 people, the ninth consecutive daily decline in critical patients.

1,787 more people have recovered.