Italy reports 300 plus deaths for third day running

Rome, March 18 Italy, Europe's worst coronavirus-hit country and the world's second after China, on Tuesday reported a further 345 deaths in the past 24 hours.

This was the third day running that it reported over 300 deaths - after 368 on Sunday, and 349 on Monday.

While the country's toll has gone upto 2,503, a point of optimism was that the infection rate had slowed down, according to the BBC.

The country now has 31,506 cases - with 2,060 people in intensive care, up from 27,980 earlier. However, this was the slowest rate of increase since the country identified the presence of the virus last month.

( With inputs from IANS )