ROME, Italy (AP) — The Italian health ministry reported another 1,638 new cases of coronavirus and 24 deaths.
The deaths brought Italy’s official coronavirus toll to 35,692, second highest in Europe after Britain.
The health ministry says the new cases were based on a record 103,223 tests. While countries such as Germany have been processing more than double that number in recent days, Italy has been limited at around 100,000 tests.
Public health officials said in their weekly monitoring report that Italy’s seven-week uptick in cases represented a “slow and progressive worsening of the outbreak.” However, it’s not as bad as in other European countries where new daily cases have exceeded 10,000.