Italy's COVID-19 incidence has risen sharply, according to the latest coronavirus monitoring report of the health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS), with 241 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants in the December 10-16 period, up from 176 the previous week.
It said, however, that the nationwide Rt transmission number was down slightly at 1.13 for the November 24-December 7 period, compared to 1.18 in last week's report.
An Rt number above 1 indicates that the epidemic is in a phase of expansion.
It said the proportion of intensive-care places occupied by COVID sufferers was 9.6% on December 16, just below the alert threshold of 10% and up from 8.5% on December 9.
It said the proportion of ordinary-hospital-ward beds taken up by coronavirus sufferers was 12.1%, compared to 10.6% last week but still below the alert threshold of 15%.
The report said there was a big increase in the number of new cases not linked to transmission chains - 42,675 compared to 37,278 last week.
It said the proportion of cases uncovered thanks to contact tracing was down to 31% from 34% last week.
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