Coronavirus: Italy’s virus death toll surpasses 1000

More than 1000 people have now died in Italy – Europe’s epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

More than 1000 people have died in Italy as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the latest figures.

The death toll has jumped in the last 24 hours by 189 to 1016, a rise of 23 per cent, the Civil Protection Agency said overnight.

The total number of cases in Italy, the European country hardest hit by the virus, rose to 15,113 from a previous 12,462, an increase of 21.7 per cent.

This marked the biggest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion first came to light on February 21.

Paramedics carry a hazardous medical waste box as patients lie on camp beds in one of the emergency structures that were set up to ease procedures at the Brescia hospital, northern Italy. Picture: Luca Bruno/AP

The agency said that, of those originally infected, 1258 had fully recovered compared to 1045 the day before. Some 1153 people were in intensive care against a previous 1028.

The Vatican, meanwhile, has taken the unprecedented step of closing all Catholic churches across Rome to stem the spread of the virus.

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The papal vicar for Rome said the churches would reopen when a broader Italian government crackdown on public gatherings expires on April 3.

“The faithful are consequently exempt from their obligation to fulfil the festive precept,” a statement from Cardinal Angelo De Donatis said.

An Italian police officer walks in an empty St Peter’s Square in Rome after the Vatican erected a new barricade at the edge of the square. Picture: Andrew Medichini/AP

The Vatican statement said access to “churches of the Diocese of Rome open to the public – and more generally to religious buildings of any kind open to the public – is forbidden to all the faithful”.

“This provision is for the common good,” De Donatis wrote.