Italy's COVID-19 death toll exceeds 20,000, minor breaches to lockdown over Easter

Addressing a televised press conference, Civil Protection Department Chief Angelo Borrelli explained that there were 566 new fatalities, compared with 431 registered on Sunday.

Active infections increased by 1,363 from Sunday to a tally of 103,616.

Meanwhile, there were 1,224 new recoveries, bringing the total of recoveries to 35,435 since the pandemic broke out in the northern regions on Feb. 21.

Of those infected, 28,023 people are currently hospitalized, 176 more from the previous day; 3,260 are in intensive care, down by 83; and 72,333, or about 70 percent, are isolated at home.

It was the tenth consecutive day that the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units showed a decreasing trend, according to Borrelli.

This trend helped alleviating the pressure on Italy's hospitals, and especially on the most affected regions, which remained northern Lombardy, with 31,935 active infections; Emilia Romagna, with 13,818; Piedmont, with 12,765; Veneto, with 10,766; and central Tuscany, with 6,257, according to latest data.

After days on a similar downward trend, Sunday's number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in normal wards rose again.

Meanwhile, strengthened police controls ordered for Easter holidays continued through Monday, "also with police using helicopters and drones," the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

Restrictions seemed to have been mostly respected. On Easter Sunday, some 213,565 people and 60,435 business activities were checked. 13,756 people were fined for not observing restrictive rules, including 19 coronavirus positive people who defied the absolute ban on leaving their home isolation, according to official data.

Still on Easter, some 121 commercial activities were sanctioned, while another 47 were shut down for major breaches.

Overall, law enforcement forces have checked 6,976,423 people and 2,831,550 activities between March 11, the day after the nationwide lockdown effectively entered into force, and April 12, the data found.

On Monday, in an interview with state-run RAI Radio 1 broadcaster, Transport Minister Paola De Micheli said the possible shift to the "Phase 2" of emergency -- meaning a gradual and partial restoration of economic and social activities -- would imply "a different way for people to use public transport."

"We will have to imagine a society where not everyone goes to work and back at the same time, but rather at flexible hours, and especially for public offices," De Micheli said.

The minister also explained that a little less than 15 percent of Italy's regional and high-speed trains are currently running, while the percentage is higher for flights since the government chose "to leave open some air traffic routes in order to bring home Italians studying abroad or those who had a job but have lost it."

Any decision on whether to shift to this second phase would be up to the central government, on the base of the recommendations of a technical and scientific committee of experts.

Italy has declared a six-month national state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic on Jan. 31.

The government imposed a nationwide lockdown that went into effect on March 10. One month later, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the lockdown would continue until May 3.