Italy’s death toll from coronavirus outbreak rose in the last day by 427 to 3,405, overtaking the total number of deaths so far registered in China, officials said.
Some 3,245 people have died in China since the virus first emerged there late last year. Italy’s outbreak came to light in the north of the country on February 21.
Thursday’s figure represented a slight improvement on the day before when Italy recorded 475 deaths.
The total number of cases in Italy rose to 41,035 from a previous 35,713, up 14.9 percent, a faster rate of growth than seen over the last three days, the Civil Protection Agency said.
Nearly 220,000 people have now been confirmed with the coronavirus globally, of which at least 84,000 have recovered from COVID-19, while more than 8,800 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in the US.
