Italy reported a record 627 new coronavirus deaths Friday and saw its world-topping toll surpass 4,000, despite government efforts to stem the pandemic s spread.
The Mediterranean country s daily rate of fatalities is now higher than that officially reported by China at the peak of its outbreak around Wuhan s Hubei province.
But Matteo Bassetti of Italy s prestigious San Martino clinic in Genoa said the government probably had no idea how many people really had the new disease.
“There are so many people walking around who have the virus and who are at risk of infecting others,” Bassetti told Italy s AGI news agency.
“The 40,000 cases we are talking about (in Italy) could actually be 100 times higher.”
Italy is rapidly notching up one grim record after the next as it becomes the new global epicentre of COVID-19.
In less than four weeks, it has recorded more deaths than China officially registered since reporting its first infection to the World Health Organization in late December.
Italy has seen more than 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 in the past three days alone.
Italy s total number of deaths now stands at 4,032.
Infections rose Friday by nearly 6,000 — another international record — to 47,021.
The nation of 60 million accounted for around 36.2 percent of the world s coronavirus deaths at 1900 GMT.
