Italy reports 427 new coronavirus deaths, overtakes China’s death toll

ROME (Reuters) – The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy rose in the last 24 hours by 427 to 3,405, overtaking the total number of deaths so far registered in China, officials said on Thursday.

Thursday’s figure represented a slight improvement on the day before, when Italy recorded 475 deaths.

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 Feb. 21.

The total number of cases in Italy rose to 41,035 from a previous 35,713, up 14.9%, a faster rate of growth than seen over the last three days, the Civil Protection Agency said.

Of those originally infected, 4,440 had fully recovered compared to 4,025 the day before. There were 2,498 people in intensive care against a previous 2,257.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by James Mackenzie)