COVID-19: Italy passes two-million-cases mark

ROME. KAZINFORM - The health ministry said Thursday that Italy has registered 18,040 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number coronavirus cases recorded here above the two-million mark to 2,009,317, ANSA reports.

It said 505 COVID-19 sufferers have died in Italy in the last 24 hours.
The nation's coronavirus death toll now stands at 70,900.
The ministry said 593,632 people are currently positive for the virus here and 1,344,785 have recovered.
It said 193,777 swabs had been taken in the last 24 hours, some 18,000 more than on Wednesday.
The ratio of positive cases to the total number of tests was 9.3%, up from 8.3% on Wednesday.
The ministry said the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care was down by 35 to 2,589.
It said 24,070 coronavirus patients were in ordinary hospital wards, down 476.