Coronavirus: Italy death toll surpasses China despite lockdown
More people have now died of coronavirus in Italy than in China, where the disease was first recorded, after the death toll in the country rose by 427 in the last 24 hours.
According to the latest figures, 3,405 people have now died from the disease in Italy, ahead of 3,245 in China.
The increase in Italy did at least represent a slight improvement on the previous 24 hours, when the number of deaths rose by 475.
There have now been over 40,000 confirmed cases in Italy, with the growth rate currently at 14.9 per cent a day.
Of those originally infected, 4,440 had fully recovered compared to 4,025 the day before.
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The Italian authorities have extended the country’s lockdown, which came into effect on 12 March, beyond the original end date of 25 March.
This morning China announced it had no new confirmed cases of domestic transmission of the illness.
The country’s national health commission said that there were 34 new cases, but all of them were from people returning to the country.
There have been 220,000 cases of the virus worldwide with more than 9,000 deaths.