Despite the national death toll now being at 13,155, Italy’s number of new cases identified rose sharply to 110,574, with another 4782 cases confirmed on Wednesday.
This represented a slightly faster rise in the number of new infections for the first time in six days – the rise has been gradually slowing day by day.
Another 1118 people had recovered on Wednesday, making a total of 16,847.
The death toll was slightly lower on Wednesday than on Tuesday, but some doubts were raised about the accuracy of data on fatalities.
The death toll figure rose by 727, compared to Tuesday’s 837.
There was only a rise of 12 in the number of patients in intensive care: 4035 compared to 4023 on Tuesday.
In the early stages of the epidemic in Italy the number would rise by hundreds each day.
Italian officials acknowledge that their coronavirus data are incomplete because deaths from coronavirus related causes outside hospitals are not included.
The number of people who died after catching the virus without ever being tested is unknown, along with the number of people who died of other causes because they could not get treatment at an overstrained hospital.
Bergamo Mayor Giorgio Gori said on Wednesday he does not trust the official figures and thinks the real toll may be twice as high.
The mayor tweeted a newspaper analysis suggesting that the death toll in the Bergamo province was “between 4500 and 5000, and not the 2060” officially reported.
The head of Italy’s Higher Health Institute, Silvio Brusaferro, said on Tuesday that the death toll may be higher than the official figures, which don’t include people who died at home, in nursing homes and those who were infected by the virus but not tested.
“It is plausible that deaths are underestimated,” he said.
“We report deaths that are signalled with a positive swab.
“Many other deaths are not tested with a swab.”
