Italy banned travel and shut down a range of industries Monday in a last-ditch push to stem the spread of a coronavirus that has killed nearly 5,500 people in a month.
The latest wave of restrictions is designed to get the Mediterranean country through a vital 10-day stretch in which the rate of deaths and infections is supposed to finally drop.
Italy's health officials sounded notes of guarded hope after reporting another 651 fatalities on Sunday.
The figure was the second-highest recorded during the crisis and above that officially registered anywhere else in the world in a day.
But it was still lower than the record 793 deaths health officials announced on Saturday.
The number of new infections also rose Sunday by a relatively modest 10.4 percent.
The chief health officer of northern Italy's devastated Lombardy region sounded uncharacteristically upbeat Sunday.
"These figures are always a matter of either seeing the glass as half full or half empty," Giulio Gallera wrote on Facebook.
"Today, the glass is half full."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content