Italy surpasses 3M confirmed virus infections

Italy surpassed 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, the third straight day this week that daily new caseloads exceeded 20,000 cases.

With the 24,036 new confirmed infections registered by the Health Ministry, Italy has reached 3,023,129 cases. The actual total is widely considered higher because testing wasn’t extensive early in the pandemic.

The virus variant first found in England is potentially fueling the increase, along with another variant, detected in Brazil. Italy registered 297 more deaths, raising the confirmed death toll to 99,271.

“We can’t wait for more vaccines and doses of vaccines to arrive,’’ said Dr. Gianni Rezza, a Health Ministry officials, noting the slow delivery of shots.

In Italy, some 3.5 million people have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.