49 more perish in Italy, total at 197
Rome, March 7: Italy on Friday reported 49 more deaths from the new Covid-19, the highest singleday toll to date, bringing the total number of fatalities over the past two weeks to 197.
The total is the secondhighest in the world after China. Italy also saw its number of Covid-19 infections grow by 778 to 4,636, the fourth highest after China, South Korea and Iran. The Italian government has been watching closely to see if the cases are spreading from the richer north, where infections had largely been contained during the first
10 days of the epidemic. All 22 Italian regions have now registered cases, and one new death was reported Friday in the Lazio region that includes Rome and its outskirts. But there were no new deaths reported in the south, which recorded its first and only fatality in the southeastern region of Puglia around the city of Bari on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the number of people receiving intensive care has grown to 462 from 351 on Thursday.
SAUDI ARABIA reopened Saturday the area around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, reversing one of a series of measures introduced to combat the Covid-19 outbreak. Saudi authorities this week suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage, during which worshippers circle the Kaaba seven times, and also announced the temporary closure of the area around the cube structure.
SOUTH AFRICA on Saturday confirmed a second case of Covid19, a 39-year-old woman who had travelled to Italy as part of a group with the first confirmed case. The authorities said the woman, originally from the inland province of Gauteng, had come into direct contact with the first case from Kwa Zulu-Natal when they travelled back in a group of 10 from Italy on March 1.