Italy's COVID-19 transmission rate rises for 4th consecutive week: Report

Italy's COVID-19 transmission rate has increased for the fourth consecutive week, according to a weekly government report released Friday.

The rate has been above 1.0 for the second consecutive week, which means the virus is in a phase of expansion, the Ministry of Health and its High Institute of Health said in its weekly monitoring report.

The rate for the period between June 7 and June 20, the most recent period covered, was 1.30, meaning that for each Italian resident who recovered, 1.30 were newly infected. That figure is up from a transmission rate of 1.07 in the report a week ago.

For the week ending June 30, the infection rate was 763 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants, more than a 50 per cent increase from 504 per 100,000 residents in the previous week.

Eight of Italy's 21 regions and autonomous provinces were considered at high coronavirus risk levels, with the others classified as moderate risk.

On Friday, the health ministry reported more than 86,000 new COVID-19 cases, up from nearly 84,000 a day earlier and the highest one-day total in the country since April. The pandemic claimed 72 lives in Italy on Friday, the highest one-day total in two weeks.