Italy has recorded 919 deaths in a single day due to coronavirus — the largest number of deaths in a single day since the pandemic began.
The figure means the total death toll has surged to 9,134, the country’s Civil Protection Agency said on Friday.
The previous largest daily toll was on March 21, when 793 people died.
The 919 people who died over the last 24 hours compares with 712 deaths on Thursday, 683 on Wednesday, 743 on Tuesday and 602 on Monday.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country rose to 86,498 from a previous 80,539, taking Italy's total past that of China, where the coronavirus epidemic emerged at the end of last year.
The United States already surpassed China’s tally of cases on Thursday.
The Italian authorities said 10,950 previously infected people had fully recovered on Friday, a rise of 581 from 10,361 the day before.
There were also 3,732 people in intensive care against a previous 3,612.
The northern region of Lombardy remains the hardest-hit area of the country and reported a steep rise in fatalities compared with the day before.
It remains in a critical situation, with a total of 5,402 of the total deaths and 37,298 cases reported by Friday.
That compared with 4,861 deaths and 34,889 cases reported up until Thursday.
Friday’s cumulative death toll included 50 fatalities which had actually occurred on Thursday in the northern Piedmont region, but whose notification arrived too late to be included in the official figures for March 26, the Civil Protection Agency said.
This has led to some confusion and means that some media outlets have reported the Friday death toll at 969, rather than 919.
Additional reporting by Reuters
