Italy's death toll from the recent corona outbreak there rose sharply by nearly 350 overnight, health officials said Wednesday. The BBC reported that Italian health officials reported 475 deaths and 3,526 new confirmed cases of the novel form of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the country's total dead to 2,503 and infected to 31,506 cases. Italy has been the hardest-hit European countries dealing with the coronavirus, and has seen the greatest number of infected persons outside of China, where the virus is thought to have originated. Stores and non-essential businesses have been shuttered as much of the country has been ordered on lockdown by authorities seeking to control the spread. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a global pandemic, while officials around the world have restricted travel and ordered schools and other large gathering spaces to close. The number of people killed by the virus passed 100 in the U.K. on Wednesday, according to the BBC, while France and Belgium sit only slightly higher. Spain, meanwhile, has reported nearly 600 dead from the disease. "To suppress and control epidemics, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday, according to the BBC. Source
