Italy sets new Covid cases record, surpassing 100,000 for first time

Italy reported 126,888 new cases of coronavirus, the first time the country has recorded more than 100,000 cases in one day.

 

A previous record had been set on Wednesday with 98,030 cases. However, Thursday's increase was the largest in one day during the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported.

Thursday's figure represents more than 2 per cent of a total of nearly 6 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic.

The high number in Italy is part of a wider trend across Europe, fueled mostly by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

Italy ranks third in the total number of Covid-19 infections in the European Union, behind only France and Germany.

The increase in cases are coming despite a broadly successful vaccination rollout. As of Thursday, nearly 86 per cent of the population over the age of 12 years had been fully vaccinated in the country.

--IANS

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