Italy's daily death toll continued to fall as a further 433 people had died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 23,660, official data showed. Sunday's number of new deaths was the smallest in a week. It also represented the fourth time in five days that the number of victims of the global pandemic fell in Italy, Xinhua reported.

 

The total number of confirmed cases -- combining active infections, fatalities and recoveries -- rose to 178,972, a daily increase of 3,047 against Saturday, according to fresh figures from the Civil Protection Department. The number of new infections was slightly lower than the number of 3,491 recorded a day earlier.

 

Also, there were 2,128 additional recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 47,055, since the pandemic first broke out in the northern Lombardy region on February 21.

 

Of the total 108,257 active infections, 2,635 patients are in intensive care, down by 98 compared to the previous day.

 

In a social media post uploaded late on Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the national quarantine, first put into place on March 10, could be partially lifted starting May 4, the day after the current lockdown deadline.

 

Conte said the easing of protection measures would be "based on a well-articulated program that reconciles the protection of citizens' health and the need for economic production."

 

But Conte also brushed aside media speculation that the lockdown would be lifted earlier in some parts of the country. He said that to whatever extent the quarantine was lifted it would be done on the same terms across the country.

 

The national lockdown will be followed by a so-called "Phase Two," involving "the gradual resumption of social, economic and productive activities," the Italian government has explained.

 

Sunday marked the first time since late February that the country's Civil Protection Department did not hold a daily briefing, another sign that the situation is improving. Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli said in a statement released Saturday that going forward live, on-air briefings would only take place on Mondays and Thursdays.