Italy’s new Covid cases top 100K for 2nd straight day

ROME: For a second consecutive day, Italy has reported more than 100,000 new Covid-19 cases due to a resurgence caused by the Omicron BA.5 sub-variant, according to the Health Ministry.

On Wednesday, the Ministry reported 107,786 new cases after registering 132,274 infections the previous day, reports Xinhua news agency.

On Tuesday, the new cases surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time since early February.

According to the latest data, the virus transmission rate in Italy remains above 1.0, indicating that Covid-19 is in a phase of expansion.

The number of patients in intensive care units remained stable, but overall hospitalisations reached 8,220, an increase of 217 from Tuesday's figure.

The country reported 72 new Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday.

The daily deaths have remained below 100 since late May, though Tuesday's total of 94 was the highest in more than a month.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020, Italy has reported a total of 19,048,788 Covid-19 cases and 168,770 deaths.