#15,053
In their latest update, Italy has passed Iran in the total number of COVID-19 cases (n=5884) with the addition of 1240 new cases over the past 24 hours. Additionally, another 26 deaths have been reported, bringing the number of fatal cases to 224.
As it stands now, Italy is reporting a 3.8% apparent mortality rate, which is higher than we've seen in any other country, including Iran.
It is unclear what is behind Italy's higher death, but some possibilities include a degradation of local health care delivery and/or or an inability to test a large numbers of milder or moderately ill cases. Roughly 10% of Italy's cases, however, are listed as being in intensive care.
Although today's update touts a case count of 5061, but that is the number of cases after those who have been cured, or have died, have been deducted. The accumulated total is just shy of 5900.
