New hope for Italy as daily rate of infections and number of deaths both fall

Italy’s coronavirus death toll has jumped by 683 to 7,503, a decline in the daily tally of fatalities following a spike yesterday.

On Tuesday 743 people died, following 602 deaths on Monday, 650 on Sunday and a record of 793 on Saturday – the highest daily figure since the deadly bug emerged in the country on February 21.

The total number of confirmed cases there has risen to 74,386 from a previous 69,176, the Civil Protection Agency said.

The head of the agency, Angelo Borrelli, was not present at the customary news conference to illustrate the data because he came down with a fever on Wednesday.

Of those originally infected nationwide, 9,362 had fully recovered on Wednesday compared to 8,326 the day before.

There were 3,489 people in intensive care against a previous 3,396.

The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy reported a sharp fall in the number of deaths compared with the day before, but remained in a critical situation, with a total of 4,474 deaths and 32,346 cases.

That compared with 4,178 deaths and 30,703 cases reported up to Tuesday. 

The glimmer of hope comes hours after it tragically emerged a nurse in the region killed herself after testing positive for coronavirus and fearing she had infected others.

Daniela Trezzi, 34, was working on the front line of the coronavirus crisis at a hospital in Lombardy.

The National Federation of Nurses of Italy confirmed her death and expressed its ‘pain and dismay’ in a statement last night. 

The federation said the nurse had been suffering ‘heavy stress’ because she feared she was spreading the virus while trying to bring the crisis under control.

Daniela Trezzi had been working on the intensive care ward at the San Gerardo hospital in Monza, around nine miles from Milan, but was in quarantine after showing coronavirus symptoms and testing positive for the disease.   

The nursing group also revealed that ‘a similar episode had happened a week ago in Venice, with the same underlying reasons’. 

‘Each of us has chosen this profession for good and, unfortunately, also for bad: we are nurses,’ the federation said. 

‘The condition and stress to which our professionals are subjected is under the eyes of all.’ 

The general manager of San Gerardo hospital, Mario Alparone , said Daniela had been at home sick since March 10, and that ‘she was not under surveillance’.

Judicial authorities are now investigating her death, according to local media.

Figures released by an Italian research institute yesterday showed that some 5,760 health workers had been infected with coronavirus. 

Nino Cartabellotta, the head of the Gimbe foundation which collected the data, urged this ‘phenomemon’ must be ‘curbed to safeguard those who take care of us’.

Health officials across Italy are poring over every new piece of data to see whether two weeks of bans and closures have made a dent in the crisis.

However, some officials have cautioned that it is still too soon to say if Italy is about to see a peak in the outbreak.