The number of new COVID-19 cases registered in Italy between February 2 and 8 was 649,345, a decrease of 27.9% on the 900,027 recorded the previous week, the GIMBE health foundation said Thursday in its regular coronavirus monitoring report.
It said it was the second consecutive week that there had been a significant drop in the number of new cases.
The foundation stressed hat there had also been a 15.5% drop in the number of COVID tests done in the February 2-8 period.
It said the figures were cause for "cautious optimism" while stressing that they do not justify "risky moves" in terms of COVID-19 prevention measures.
GIMBE said the number of people in hospital in Italy with COVID had dropped by 7.7% from 19,873 to 18,337.
The number of coronavirus sufferers in intensive care here fell by 11.2% from 1,549 to 1,376.
But the number of COVID-related deaths rose 0.2% to 2,587 in the period in question.
GIMBE said 85.4% of the population eligible for vaccination had had at least one COVID jab, while 7.1 million people were unvaccinated for the coronavirus.
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