Italy recorded 296 fresh cases of infection from the new coronavirus in the past 24 hours across the country, but total active infections decreased to 18,303 on Thursday from 18,655 on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
A total of 186,725 patients have recovered (against 186,111 on Wednesday) and 34 patients succumbed to COVID-19, pushing the overall death toll to 34,678 since the pandemic officially broke out in Italy on Feb. 21.
Of those who tested positive for the new coronavirus, 1,515 are hospitalized with symptoms (down from 1,610 on Wednesday) and the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care fell to 103, down by 4 patients over the past 24 hours.
The remaining 16,685 people who tested positive are quarantined at home because they are asymptomatic or have very light symptoms.
The northern, densely populated and highly industrialized Lombardy region, where the pandemic first broke out just over four months ago, still had the lion's share of infections and deaths among Italy's 20 regions, with 11,992 active cases and 16,608 deceased.
The overall number of COVID-19 infections, fatalities and recoveries rose to 239,706 over the past 24 hours, against a total of 239,410 cases on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.