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DPA / AFP
Rome
ANOTHER 760 people have died from the novel coronavirus epidemic in Italy and national contagion numbers have risen above 115,000, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday.
The death toll, already the world’s highest, now stands at 13,915.
Total infections, including recoveries and deaths, have reached 115,242, a 4.2-per-cent daily increase that compares with a 4.5-per-cent change registered on Wednesday.
Recoveries were up by 8.5 per cent, to 18,278, and even more encouragingly, the number of patients under intensive care rose by only 0.4 per cent to 4,035.
Italian health authorities have said that the contagion curve has reached “a plateau,” and that more efforts are needed to bring it down.
Late on Wednesday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said national lockdown measures due to expire on April 3 would be extended until April 13.
Meanwhile, a first prisoner in Italy has died of coronavirus, a prison watchdog group said on Thursday, calling for more early releases of inmates from the country’s overcrowded system.
Two prison guards have died of the virus, and 19 inmates out of a total inmate population of 58,000 have tested positive, according to Italy’s justice ministry.
“The first prisoner death from Covid-19 confirms all our worries about the tragic consequences of a contagion within prisons,” said prisoner rights group Antigone in a statement, without providing further details.
Over 120 guards have tested positive, Antigone said.
Prisons, where small cells are often shared by three inmates, are a particular public health worry, especially since 67% of inmates have at least one already existing health condition, Antigone said.
Pope Francis specifically mentioned prisoners during his prayer on Sunday, saying that coronavirus within the crowded prison system “could turn into a tragedy.”
Rome
ANOTHER 760 people have died from the novel coronavirus epidemic in Italy and national contagion numbers have risen above 115,000, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said on Thursday.
The death toll, already the world’s highest, now stands at 13,915.
Total infections, including recoveries and deaths, have reached 115,242, a 4.2-per-cent daily increase that compares with a 4.5-per-cent change registered on Wednesday.
Recoveries were up by 8.5 per cent, to 18,278, and even more encouragingly, the number of patients under intensive care rose by only 0.4 per cent to 4,035.
Italian health authorities have said that the contagion curve has reached “a plateau,” and that more efforts are needed to bring it down.
Late on Wednesday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said national lockdown measures due to expire on April 3 would be extended until April 13.
Meanwhile, a first prisoner in Italy has died of coronavirus, a prison watchdog group said on Thursday, calling for more early releases of inmates from the country’s overcrowded system.
Two prison guards have died of the virus, and 19 inmates out of a total inmate population of 58,000 have tested positive, according to Italy’s justice ministry.
“The first prisoner death from Covid-19 confirms all our worries about the tragic consequences of a contagion within prisons,” said prisoner rights group Antigone in a statement, without providing further details.
Over 120 guards have tested positive, Antigone said.
Prisons, where small cells are often shared by three inmates, are a particular public health worry, especially since 67% of inmates have at least one already existing health condition, Antigone said.
Pope Francis specifically mentioned prisoners during his prayer on Sunday, saying that coronavirus within the crowded prison system “could turn into a tragedy.”
