Coronavirus figures offer signs of hope for Italy that lockdown is working

Italy has been under lockdown to try to get on top of its coronavirus outbreak. Photo / AP file

Officials say Italy has recorded a smaller day-to-day increase in new coronavirus cases for the second straight day.

Data released by Italy's Civil Protection agency this morning showed 4789 new cases from a day earlier, nearly 700 fewer than the day-to-day increase reported yesterday.

The number of deaths also did not rise by as much.

There were just over 600 registered today compared to 651 yesterday.

It means new cases are down 27 per cent in two days - the lowest number of new cases since March 17 and a sign the country may be starting to bend the coronavirus curve.

Italy has been anxious to see the day-to-day figures for new cases and deaths go down as its health system struggles under the weight of the world's largest Covid-19 outbreak outside of China.

As of today, Italy had a total of 59,138 virus cases compared to China's 81,496.

Health authorities have said it will be a few more days before they will know if Italy is at the beginning of a positive trend.

A top government health official, Silvio Brusaferro, resisted being too optimistic, saying that the improvements registered today were due to actions taken at the beginning of the month, not in recent days.

"We need more consecutive results to confirm the trend, to be more certain that we are in a favourable situation.," Brusaferro said.

- AP

Italy is maybe bending the curve. New cases down 27% in two days, lowest # of new cases since March 17 https://t.co/Zvmsnncxzw

— Daniel Gross (@grossdm) March 23, 2020

Italy COVID-19: 601 people have died in the last 24 hrs, horrible, but less than the 651 deaths reported yesterday and the 793 reported Saturday. The total number who have tested positive in Italy is close to 64,000. Govt says 7,432 have recovered.

— Cindy Wooden (@Cindy_Wooden) March 23, 2020

++ Italy's 🇮🇹 number of registered Covid-19 cases grows by 8.1%. First time it is down to single digit.

Today's death toll is 601 down from 651 & 793 in the previous two days.

Italy went into lockdown two weeks ago. Scientists said it would take two weeks to see some results.

— Ferdinando Giugliano (@FerdiGiugliano) March 23, 2020

This slight decrease in new cases is coming even as Italy increasing tests (https://t.co/3mA6RYQQON), so this is a bit hopeful. With that said, I think you'd generally want for several days' worth of data to be confident that there's a turnaround. https://t.co/OtdfXT7UCh

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 23, 2020

Breaking/ #Italy. The #Hope continues, even as the numbers are still shocking.
New #Covid19 cases 4790 DOWN from 5,560 yesterday
New deaths 602 DOWN from 651 yesterday.

2 DOWN days in a row. https://t.co/nMleD6UmQ3 pic.twitter.com/FJw00ZbvN2

— (((Howard Forman))) (@thehowie) March 23, 2020