Thursday saw a fresh rise in the daily increase in COVID-19 cases in Italy, which were up 22,865 over Wednesday compared to a gain of 20,884 on Wednesday.
There were 339 more victims in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said, 8 down from Wednesday's 347.
Some 339,635 new COVID tests have been done, down from 358,884 on Wednesday, the ministry said.
The positivity rate rose 0.9%, from 5.8% Wednesday to 6.7% Thursday.
Intensive care cases rose by 232 and hospital admissions by 394 over the last 24 hours.
Piedmont saw a surge of 2,167 cases, and a rate rising to 12%.
Italy's case tally since the start of the epidemic is now 2,999,119, and the death toll 98,974.
The currently positive are 446,439 (+9,018 over Wednesday), the recovered and discharged 2,453,706 (+13,488), and 423,807 people (+8,560) are currently in domestic isolation.
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