MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Italy has flown its flag at half-mast on Tuesday in a show of solidarity with the Italian nation that suffered significant losses due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the embassy informed on Twitter.
"The Russian Embassy in Italy is joining the initiative of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI). Today, we fly our flag at half-mast in mourning and in a show of solidarity with the Italian nation," the message informs.
Italy has the highest death toll from the novel coronavirus. The number of deaths from COVID-19 there has risen by 837 in the past 24 hours, reaching 12,428, Italy's Head of Civil Protection Angelo Borrelli said on Tuesday. The total number of those infected since the start of the epidemic, including those who died and recovered, reaches 105,792.
President of Italy's Higher Institute of Health Silvio Brusaferro noted that the epidemic had hit a plateau. "This does not mean that we have overcome its peak, because we need to look at the rate the number of infections will be going down. It is unlikely that a ‘zeroing’ will take place anytime soon," he said.
On Monday, a record low number of new cases (1,600, compared to over 3,000 the previous day) has been documented in Italy since March 17.
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus, named COVID-19 by WHO, have been reported in more than 160 countries, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, more than 786,600 people have been infected worldwide and over 37,800 have died, while more than 165,800 have recovered.