Italy death toll lowest since March 19

Italy is reporting 525 new COVID-19 fatalities, the lowest figure since March 19, which brings the overall death toll - the world's highest - to 15,887.

The total number of infections, including recoveries and deaths, reached 128,948 on Sunday, up 3.5 per cent from Saturday.

The daily rate of increase has hovered around 4.0 per cent since Monday.

For the second day in a row, there has been a fall in the number of people under intensive care, down by 17 to 3977.

On Saturday it happened for the first time since the start of the epidemic.

Recovering patients are up by 3.9 per cent to 21,815, while active cases, excluding deaths and recoveries, have increased by 3.4 per cent to 91,246.