Italy announces an additional 3,000 coronavirus cases

Italian health officials announced more than 3,000 additional confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Monday as the country struggles to deal with one of the most severe outbreaks of the disease worldwide.

NBC News reported that the head of Italy’s Civil Protection Department, Angelo Borrelli, announced Monday that the total number of infected in Italy had risen to 27,980. About one-tenth of that number, 2,749, have recovered from the disease.

The country has reported several thousand new cases every day over the last few days, with Italy now reporting the second-highest number of confirmed cases outside of China, where the virus is thought to have originated.

Italian officials have placed the country on lockdown and ordered the closure of nonessential businesses in an attempt to stop the disease from further spreading while more than 2,100 have died inside the country from the coronavirus.

The total number of cases confirmed worldwide looked on course to pass 180,000 on Monday as officials in the U.S. have warned that the U.S. may soon see a sharp spike in the number of reported cases.