Italy continues to be the hardest-hit country after it recorded 919 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, making it the worst day yet on Friday, March 27.

It was easily the highest daily tally since the epidemic emerged on Feb. 21.

The largest daily toll previously was registered on March 21, when 793 people died.

The 919 people who died over the last 24 hours compares with 712 deaths on Thursday, 683 on Wednesday, 743 on Tuesday and 602 on Monday.

The total number of confirmed cases rose to 86,498 from a previous 80,539.

Italy’s total Covid-19 cases surged past that of China, where the coronavirus epidemic emerged at the end of last year.

In Italy, of those originally infected nationwide, 10,950 had fully recovered on Friday, compared to 10,361 the day before.

There were 3,732 people in intensive care against a previous 3,612.

Lombardy still badly hit

The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy reported a steep rise in fatalities compared with the day before, with a total of 5,402 deaths and 37,298 cases.

On Thursday, the region saw 4,861 deaths and 34,889 cases.

Friday’s cumulative death tally included 50 fatalities that actually occurred on Thursday in the northern Piedmont region.

The numbers were delivered late.

This led to confusion with some media outlets reporting the Friday daily tally at 969, rather than 919.

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