ROME, March 12 (NNN-Xinhua) — Reversing a trend of several weeks of improvement, Italy’s COVID-19 situation is getting worse again, the country’s Health Ministry said.
This week, the transmission rate in Italy increased to 0.83 from 0.75 a week earlier. This rate, also referred to as R0, shows how many cases on average an infected person will cause during their infectious period. Although the R0 rate is still below 1.0 in Italy, health officials say the recent increase is significant.
The increase has prompted media speculation that the country could be heading toward a new, albeit milder wave of infections now that most health restrictions have been relaxed.
On Friday, the ministry reported 53,127 new coronavirus cases. This figure is broadly in line with the previous days’ reports but is higher than the recent low of just over 18,000 cases logged on Feb. 28. Back in January, the authorities reported over 200,000 new cases per day.
Also on Friday, the ministry reported 156 coronavirus-related deaths, 20 more than on Thursday and to the same number as on Wednesday. These figures are significantly lower than those recorded in January and are way below the all-time highs of nearly 1,000 daily deaths in late 2020.
DUBLIN: The daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ireland has more than tripled in less than two weeks after the country lifted the mask mandate, according to the figures released by the Irish Department of Health on Friday.
Ireland reported 9,186 PCR-confirmed cases on Friday, an increase of more than 300 percent from the 2,277 cases recorded on Feb. 28, the day when the country scrapped most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, including the mandate for mask wearing in public indoor settings and on public transport.
According to the department, 907 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in hospitals across the country, up nearly 49 percent compared with the figure recorded at the end of last month.
Despite the surge in the daily numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive cares units (ICUs) in Ireland declined for the third day in a row — down to 37 from 51 on Tuesday.
There were 47 COVID-19 patients being treated in ICUs in Ireland on the day when the mask mandate was lifted. — NNN-XINHUA
