COVID-19: Italy records 566 new deaths as toll crosses 20,000

Italy on Monday reported 566 new deaths due to coronavirus taking the total death toll over 20,000.

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The country, however, registered a drop in patients in the intensive care unit from 4,068 on April 3 to 3,260 on April 13, showing a general trend towards improvement in combating the virus.

Italy now has 20,465 recorded cases of total deaths due to COVID-19.

The country has 156,363 cases of coronavirus but the number of infection cases has been dropping steadily.

On Sunday, Italy had reported the lowest COVID-19 death toll in over three weeks. The country reported 431 deaths which was the lowest since March 19.

Amid the lockdown in the country, Pope Francis conducted Good Friday procession in an empty Saint Peter's Square. Several priests and at least a hundred doctors have reportedly died due to coronavirus in Italy.

Pope Francis offered Easter Sunday prayer for those killed due to the virus.

"Today my thoughts turn in the first place to the many who have been directly affected by the coronavirus: the sick, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell," the Pope said in a livestreamed message from Saint Peter's Basilica.