Italy death toll rises to record 475 in one day

The death toll in Italy has risen by a record 475 in one day to reach nearly 3,000, the biggest daily increase since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

There are a total of 35,713 confirmed cases in the country, with more than 4,000 having successfully recovered.

It has become the worst affected country after China, where the Covid-19 originated at the end of 2019.

Italy has already taken social distancing measures, cancelled events and closed businesses to help slow transmission and reduce the pressure on the health systems.

Yet despite having now been on lockdown for nearly two weeks, the number of deaths has continued to spiral.

The WHO's emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said this was probably due to the "astonishing" number of cases within the health systems, as well as the high number of elderly people in the population at large.

Italy’s lockdown was set to be extended beyond the current end-date of 3 April, the country’s prime minister told the press, as a result of the jump in the death toll.

“The total blockade will go on,” Conte said. “The measures taken, both the closure of (public) activities and the ones concerning schools, can only be extended,” he told the paper Thursday.