Italy's coronavirus death toll passes 100,000, situation worsening -govt

Italy's coronavirus death toll passed the 100,000 mark on Monday and Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that the situation was worsening again with a jump in hospitalisations.

Italy is the seventh country in the world to reach the bleak milestone, following the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India, Russia and Britain.

The health ministry said 318 people had died of the disease in the past 24 hours bringing the total tally since the epidemic hit the country 13 months ago to 100,103.

Over the last day, some 13,902 new cases were logged against 20,765 on Sunday. Fewer tests are normally carried out at the weekend, which means case numbers are often low on Mondays.

Infections rose 23% last week by comparison with the week before and health officials have warned that the country faces a fresh surge of cases as a more contagious variant of the disease gains ground.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi acknowledged on Monday that the situation was deteriorating, but said his government was going to "significantly step up" its vaccination campaign and predicted that the end to the crisis was in sight.

"The pandemic is not yet over, but with the acceleration of the vaccine plan, a way out is not far off," Draghi said.

Underscoring the challenge, the health ministry said there had been 687 new hospital admissions over the past 24 hours, up from 443 on Sunday. The total number of intensive care patients increased by 95, to 2,700.