Italy reported four more deaths Tuesday from prison riots linked to the new coronavirus that have now officially claimed 11 lives over three days.
The justice ministry has blamed all the deaths on drug overdoses that occurred after prisoners broke into medical storage rooms.
The claim was impossible to immediately verify through independent sources.
Jails have been ordered to stop visits and limit day releases as part of a broader government response to a disease that has killed 463 people in Italy in just over two weeks.
Some prisoners have been asking to be granted amnesty over a health crisis that had infected more than 9,000 people across the Mediterranean country.
The justice ministry said the situation in most of the 23 jails hit by rioting since Sunday has been brought back under control.
"The unrest that affected more than 20 prisons (Monday) has ended almost everywhere," the justice ministry said in a statement.
"In many of them, the protests and occupation... by prisoners have ended and the inmates have returned to their sleeping quarters."
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