People wear face masks in Milan, Italy, Feb. 26, 2020. (Photo by Daniele Mascolo/Xinhua)
A total of 528 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Italy. The figure marked an increase of 128 cases compared to the previous day, and included 14 fatalities.
On a positive note, Italian authorities stressed that the number of people who have recovered from the infection reached 42.
ROME, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 528 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Italy, Angelo Borrelli, chief of the Civil Protection Department and extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, said at a press conference on Thursday.
The figure marked an increase of 128 cases compared to the previous day, and included 14 fatalities.
However, Borrelli noted the authorities were still waiting for a confirmation from the National Health Institute (ISS) that the coronavirus was the true cause for the latest two fatalities.
Among the people infected, 159 were in hospital with symptoms while another 37 in intensive care.
On a positive note, Italian authorities stressed that the number of people who have recovered from the infection reached 42.
Thirty-seven of those recovered were in the northern Lombardy region -- the most affected area so far along with Veneto in the northeast.
A man walks past empty tables and seats in Milan, Italy, Feb. 26, 2020. (Photo by Daniele Mascolo/Xinhua)
"This is a very good news," Borrelli told reporters, adding "It confirms what I have been saying lately about the percentage of recoveries, which we hope will be increasing in number."
"There are people who overcome it brilliantly, and without even the need to be hospitalized," he noted.
Among those recovered were two in Sicily and three in the Lazio region surrounding Rome.
Italian authorities on Thursday tried to reassure about the situation and transparency of information provided daily, which is coordinated under the Civil Protection umbrella.
Both Borrelli and Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio warned against exaggerating the situation, stressing that there was no need to panic, nor to avoid visiting the country, or traveling across it.
The quarantined areas only concerned 0.5 percent of the Lombardy region, and 0.2 percent of the Veneto region, and, if combined, they represented 0.05 percent of Italy's territories, based on statistic from the Foreign Ministry.
The empty tables of a restaurant in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Mascolo/Xinhua)
The same data showed that those currently living in these red-zone areas made up of merely 0.089 percent of the entire population.
"Several incorrect news have been circulating these days, and they are damaging both our economic system and the reputation of our scientific community, which is carrying out an excellent job," Di Maio told a separate press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.
According to Borrelli, about 3 million passengers have so far been scrutinized for the novel coronavirus at Italian airports, and almost 110,000 others at its ports.
Finally, a connection between the two infection hotbeds identified in Lombardy and Veneto regions was found by researchers, according to Walter Ricciardi, member of the World Health Organization (WHO) executive committee and councilor for the Italian government in this emergency.
"We have been able to link the two hotbeds, the smaller one in Veneto descended from that in Lombardy," Ricciardi told Italian all-news TV channel SKY TG24. ■
