Italy records 793 coronavirus deaths in one day

Italy has recorded 793 new deaths from coronavirus in one day, adding 6,557 new cases have been detected.

Despite extensive measures to prevent the disease from spreading, Italy remains the worst affected country in Europe.

The figures represent the highest day-to-day rise in the number of deaths. It brings the totaly number of deaths to more than 4,500, whilst the number of known cases is believed to be 53,578.

More than 60 percent of the latest deaths occurred in the northern region of Lombardy, whose hospitals have been reeling under a staggering case load that has left intensive care beds hard to find and respirators in dire supply.

It comes as the UK announced the country's coronavirus death toll has topped 200, as crisis panic buyers were told they "should be ashamed" for causing needless shortages for NHS staff.

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In Bergamo, in the northern Italian region at the epicentre of the outbreak, cemeteries and health services are now overwhelmed.

Video from inside the city’s main hospital showed patients lined up in a narrow ward, struggling for breath as doctors and nurses moved from one beeping machine to the next.

In one town, authorities are trying a new tactic.

The residents of Vo, near Padua - perhaps the first Coronavirus ‘hotspot’ in Italy - have been tested and isolated and then retesting and retesting every one of the 3,300 inhabitants.

As a result, authorities have found the number of infections has stopped rising.