The number of cases of the new coronavirus in Italy has exceeded 1,000, the health ministry said Saturday, with the death toll rising by eight to 29 in the past 24 hours.

The number of cases has reached 1,128 since the start of the epidemic a week ago, up from 888 on Friday.

Around half those tested show few to no symptoms, the Italian health authorities said.

Official figures said 105 people were receiving intensive care hospital treatment as of Saturday.

Eighty of the most serious cases are in the northern Lombardi region. All the deaths have been recorded in three northern regions, the health ministry’s figures showed.

A total of 1,049 people remained infected on Saturday, the figures showed.

ALSO READ: Mexico confirms first three cases of coronavirus, linked to Italy

Vanguard earlier reported that Mexico’s health ministry said the country has confirmed three cases of the coronavirus, becoming the second Latin American nation reached by the global outbreak.

The three men — two in Mexico City and one in the northern state of Sinaloa — are all believed to have visited northern Italy, the epicentre of the virus in Europe. “Probably all three were infected from the same source.

All three are imported cases,” Jose Luis Alomia, general director of epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, said at a press conference Friday.

Senior health ministry official Hugo Lopez-Gatell told a separate news conference that one of the men, a 35-year-old in the capital, “has a mild, mild illness” with symptoms “similar to that of a cold”.

“He is a young individual and so he is at very low risk,” he said.

[AFP]

Vanguard News Nigeria.