ROME — The number of deaths in Italy by the COVID-19 coronavirus passed the 1,000-mark Thursday, jumping by 189 to a total of 1,016 despite drastic measures to contain the virus.
The number of new cases of coronavirus infection also went up significantly over a 24-hour period, adding 2,249 cases for a total of 12,839 currently infected as of 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
There was some good news amidst the bad, with the number of those recovered from the virus jumping by 213 to a new total of 1,258.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide has still not crossed 5,000 but currently stands at 4,718, while the number of those who have recovered from the virus is 68,310.
As a point of comparison, the 2009 swine flu pandemic infected around one billion people around the globe, with a death toll of hundreds of thousands. Whereas the swine flu hit young people particularly hard, the Wuhan coronavirus targets the elderly. The average age of those who have died thus far is 80 years old.
Also on Thursday, the Italian bishops’ conference announced that it was closing all churches in the country. The conference had already suspended the celebration of Mass but had left churches open so the faithful could pray.
The decision to close the churches was made out of a sense of responsibility and “not because the state imposes it on us,” said Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, the president of the conference.