Italy being one of the countries of the world with highest daily cases of Coronavirus has recorded fewer cases than it has been recording in the past. 

This has made Italians elated over latest development. 

Italian health officials cheered Friday after the number of people currently being treated for COVID-19 rose by only a few hundred for the first time since the outbreak began.

Figures from the civil protection service showed the number of those receiving hospital care or recovering at home under medical supervision rising by 355 to 106,962 on Friday, 17th April. 

But the figure outside the outbreak’s Italian epicentre in Milan’s norther region of Lombardy went up by just 11 cases.

Earlier, the number had been rising by at least 1,000 a day nationally for over a month.

“In absolute terms, we have had had the highest number of recoveries since the start of the crisis,” civil protection service chief Angelo Berrelli told reporters.

Italy’s official death toll still rose by another 575 fatalities Friday to 22,745 — second-most after the United States.

The number of people currently suffering from coronavirus is counted separately from the number of new officially registered infections.

That number rose by 3,493 on Friday — about the same as it has been all week.

The generally improving picture prompted the civil protection service to announce that it was suspending daily briefings and moving to a twice-a-week format.

New tolls will still be issued daily.

As a result of the development, The Italian government awaits response from leading doctors to start lifting an economically devastating lockdown that has left millions furloughed and unemployed.

The current restrictions are due to expire on May 4 and the government is planning to partially lift stay-at-home orders in regions where new cases have drastically dropped.

The government’s public health council chief Franco Locatelli hinted Friday that regions south of Rome may be allowed to resume something resembling their old way of life next month.

“We have prevented the spread of contagions in southern regions. This is now a fact supported by (Friday’s) figures,” Locatelli said.

Yet, the level to which businesses are allowed to operate across the economically vital north will be determined by the number of deaths and recoveries reported over the coming days.

Previously undisclosed figures from its public health institute revealed that nearly 17,000 medics have been infected with the virus since Italy’s first COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21.

Several Italian doctors have expressed fears that infected health care workers may have been unwittingly spreading the disease to their patients in the early weeks of the outbreak.

According to a study released on Thursday by the FNOMCeO medical association said, COVID-19 has killed 125 doctors in Italy.

No fewer than 34 nurses have also died of the disease.

Doctors believe that Italy’s real number of deaths could be double the official figure in some of the worst-hit provinces around Milan