Coronavirus death toll in Italy jumps to 1,441

The death toll in Italy’s coronavirus outbreak rose to 1,441 on Saturday, up almost 14 percent from the 1,266 total reported a day earlier, the civil protection authority said on Saturday.

The total number of cases rose to 21,157 from 17,660, the authority said. Italy remains the worst affected country in Europe and second only to China, where the highly infectious virus first emerged.

The agency said 1,966 patients had recovered from the disease, which broke out in the north of the country on Feb. 21, compared to 1,439 the day before.

The number of patients in intensive care rose to 1,518 against a previous 1,328.

In a related development, Greece is currently leading among the Eastern Mediterranean countries in terms of the number of coronavirus cases detected, with 190 patients diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus as of Saturday.

Israel came in second on the list with 161 cases while Egypt came in next with 80 active cases.

Spain confirmed more than 1,500 new cases of coronavirus between Friday and Saturday raising its total to 5,753 cases, the second-highest number in Europe after Italy.

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