Italy saw the biggest surge in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases since the outbreak began with the total reaching almost 1,700 on Sunday – almost 600 more than on Saturday. The death toll reached 34. Here’s the latest news.

The number of cases of the new coronavirus in Italy was almost at 1,700, the health ministry said on Sunday, with the death toll rising by five to 34 in the past 24 hours.
The number of cases has reached 1,689 since the start of the epidemic just over a week ago, up from 888 on Friday and 1,100 on Saturday.

The jump in the number of cases on Sunday represents the biggest 24-hour surge since the outbreak began. That number includes around 60 people who had been infected but are now fully recovered.
On Saturday Angelo Borrelli, head of Italy’s civil protection department said only around half of the number of confirmed infections were clinical. The non-clinical cases have few or no symptoms and are not in the hospital but in isolation at home.

Official figures said 105 people were receiving intensive care hospital treatment as of Saturday. 80 of the most serious cases are in the northern Lombardy region, which is at the center of the outbreak.

All the deaths have been recorded in the three northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna, the health ministry’s figures showed.