Italy's number of COVID-19 patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) dropped to 177 on Tuesday, down from 207 on Monday, the country's Civil Protection Department said, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Total active infections decreased to 24,569, down by 1,340 over the past 24 hours. Of those infections, 3,301 are hospitalized with symptoms, down by 188.
Meanwhile, 1,516 COVID-19 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 178,526. A further 34 patients have died, bringing the death toll since the pandemic began in the country to 34,405.
The overall number of COVID-19 cases combining infections, fatalities and recoveries rose by 210 to 237,500 over the past 24 hours.
The northern Lombardy region whose capital is Milan, where the pandemic officially began on Feb. 21, still had the lion's share of active cases among Italy's 20 regions, with 15,233 infections.
Also on Tuesday, Extraordinary Commissioner for the Coronavirus Emergency Domenico Arcuri said that 5.3 million face masks have been delivered to the 3,268 schools where senior high school students will be sitting their final exams on Wednesday.
"We must encourage responsible behaviors on the part of all citizens, beginning with the youngest," Arcuri said in a statement. "And we will continue to do so by guaranteeing... an increasingly available quantity of face masks produced in Italy."
Arcuri added that "by September we will have capacity to produce over 30 million (face masks) a day, in readiness for all schools' reopening after a long period of lockdown."