Rome, April 29 (RHC)-- Italy suffered a jump in COVID-19 fatalities on Tuesday as the illness claimed 382 more lives. It comes as the total number of people infected since the outbreak began in the Mediterranean country topped the 200,000 mark.

Tuesday’s total was an increase of 49 on Monday’s figure and represented the highest number of deaths from the disease in four days.  The number of new confirmed cases also increased on Tuesday, and the tally of 2,091 was enough to push Italy past the 200,000 milestone.

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc in Italy since it first emerged there on February 21. With 27,359 fatalities the country has the second highest Covid-19 death toll in the world, behind the United States.

It’s not all bad news, however, as health officials said the number of people currently carrying the disease fell by over 600 on Tuesday.  A total of 1.275 million people in Italy have been tested for the virus, out of a population of around 60 million.

Italy will begin to take very tentative steps to roll back lockdown measures when parks, factories and construction sites are allowed to reopen on May 4th.  Shops have been ordered to stay shut until May 18th, though, while restaurants, bars and hairdressers aren’t allowed to open their doors until June 1st and schools will remain closed until September.