Italy records 837 new deaths, but officials see ‘plateau’

Italy says another 837 people have died of the novel coronavirus, pushing the global death toll well past 40,000, and bringing its own tally to 12,428 dead, the highest in the world.

It says another 4,053 infections were confirmed to bring Italy’s total confirmed cases to 105,792.

Despite the grim numbers, the head of Italy’s national institutes of health says the country has hit the “plateau” in its coronavirus infection rate, three weeks into a national lockdown, and should start to see a decline in new cases.

Dr. Silvio Brusaferro stresses that it would be folly to relax Italy’s productivity shutdown and stay-at-home restrictions now, even though the rate of new virus infections is slowing.

But he says, “The curve suggests we are at the plateau. We have to confirm it, because arriving at the plateau doesn’t mean we have conquered the peak and we’re done. It means now we should start to see the decline if we continue to place maximum attention on what we do every day.”

— with AP