A total of 5,476 people have been killed by the coronavirus in Italy, including 651 in the past 24 hours, a declining figure greeted on Sunday with cautious expectation by health officials.
“The figures announced today are lower than those of yesterday. I hope and we all hope that these figures can be confirmed in the coming days. But don't let your guard down, ”said the head of civil defense, Angelo Borrelli.
On Saturday, he announced a record figure of nearly 800 dead during the day (793). Sunday's results, however, remain the second heaviest since the start of the pandemic. The total number of contamination cases is close to 60,000 and has increased further (5,560 more than on Saturday).
"We must not let go of an exaggerated enthusiasm nor overinterpret" this balance sheet of the day down, but "it is a sign that we welcome positively", said for his part Franco Locatelli, an official of the authorities Italian sanitary facilities.
"Especially because it comes at a time when we expected to have tangible signs of the effectiveness of containment measures," added Franco Locatelli.
He called on his compatriots to continue their efforts and to respect the restrictions on freedoms which have been imposed on them for almost two weeks throughout the country, with a ban on rallies, a strict limitation on travel and a considerable slowdown in activity economic.
Last screw in a long list of successive reinforcements of measures, a joint order of the Ministers of the Interior and of Health now prohibits "traveling with a means of public or private transport in a different commune", "except for proven reasons for work, absolute urgency or for health reasons ”.
"We have reached the maximum of what can be contagion prevention measures in social terms", however recognized Franco Locatelli.
The Milan region, Lombardy, still recorded more than half of the new deaths (361, for a total of 3,456) and its hospital service remains overwhelmed, its nursing staff exhausted.