Italy reported its lowest daily risein COVID-19 deaths for nearly two weeks on Saturday and said the numberof patients in intensive care had fallen for the first time.
Officials urged the country not to flout strict lockdown measuresthey said were starting to show results, although new cases rose by 4,805 onSaturday which was slightly higher than recent daily increases.
The Civil Protection department reported 681 deaths,bringing the total to 15,632 since the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemicin northern Italy on Feb. 21. It was the lowest daily rise in deathssince March 23.
The total number of confirmed cases rose to 124,632 from 119,827reported on Friday but for the first time, the number of patients in badlystretched intensive care units fell, with 3,994 patients being treated, down 74from 4,068 on Friday.
"This is an important piece of news because it allows ourhospitals to breathe," Civil Protection head Angelo Borelli told a regulardaily briefing where he has announced the grim daily tally of the world's mostdeadly outbreak of the disease.
For days, Italian officials have said that broadly stable risesin the number of cases suggested that the outbreak had reached a plateau andthat the numbers would begin to go down – if strict lockdown measures wererespected.
