The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 793 to 4,825, officials said on Saturday, an increase of 19.6% .
This is by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago.
On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious virus.
The total number of cases in Italy rose to 53,578 from a previous 47,021, an increase of 13.9%, the Civil Protection Agency said.
The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy remains in a critical situation, with 3,095 deaths and 25,515 cases.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 6,072 had fully recovered on Saturday compared to 5,129 the day before. There were 2,857 people in intensive care against a previous 2,655.
Italy surpassed China for coronavirus related deaths on Thursday.
It reached the bleak milestone the same day that Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged three months ago, recorded no new infections, a sign that the communist country’s draconian lockdowns were a powerful method to stop the spread of the virus.
On Thursday, a visiting Chinese Red Cross team criticised Italians’ failure to properly quarantine themselves and take the national lockdown seriously.
