AGENCIES, Italy: Another day and a bad one that too for Italy, the European country facing the maximum brunt of coronavirus pandemic. Health authorities confirmed on Wednesday that the highest toll of COVID-19 475 deaths were reported in 24 hours despite a complete lockdown in the country.
The figure was also the highest one-day official toll of any nation since the first case was detected in China late in 2019. The country’s virus related fatalities has already crossed 3,000 even as the number of cases detected passed 35,000. The previous record high of 368 deaths was also recorded in Italy, on Sunday.
Given the time-frame, health experts in Italy say while it remains difficult to predict when the number of fatalities and cases in Italy will peak, but rough estimated suggest this will happen between March 25 and April 15.
As of now, the whole country living under strict quarantine rules since March 10. There have been instances of breach of quarantine rules compelling local authorities to take out stricter measures and enforce fines on offenders. According to officials, 47,000 people across Italy were fined by police within one week for being outside “without a good reason”.
The majority of both infections and fatalities have been recported in the northern Italian region of Lombardy around Milan, the Italian financial and fashion capital.which is by far the worst hit by the outbreak.