The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy climbed by 812 to 11,591, the Civil Protection Agency said Monday, reversing two days of declines in the daily rate.
However, the number of new cases rose by just 4,050, the lowest number since March 17, hitting a total 101,739 from a previous 97,689.
Some 5,217 cases were recorded on Sunday and 5,974 on Saturday.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 14,620 had fully recovered on Monday, compared to 13,030 the day before. There were 3,981 people in intensive care, up from a previous 3,906.
Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities from the virus.
Italy's largest daily toll from the five-week-old epidemic was registered on Friday, when 919 people died. There were 889 deaths on Saturday and 756 on Sunday.
Lockdowns and stringent measures in place in Italy for the past two weeks should lead soon to stabilization in its coronavirus epidemic, but vigilant follow-up will be required, a senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.
"We do hope that Italy and Spain are nearly there, but the virus won't go down by itself, it needs to be pushed down through public health efforts," Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, told a news conference.
On Italy, Ryan said: "We should start to see stabilization. The cases we see today really reflect exposures two weeks ago."
