Italy has extended lockdown until April 12 to stem coronavirus infections that have claimed a world-leading 11,591 lives so far.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that any easing of containment measures will be done incrementally to ensure Italy does not give up gains it has made against the extraordinary disease.

PM Conte told a newspaper that the near three-week shutdown has been very tough economically. Italy is the first Western nation to impose sweeping restrictions to stem the pandemic.

It recorded 812 more deaths on Monday and the number of infections reported by the civil protection service surpassed one lakh.

But fresh evidence also suggested that COVID-19 is spreading more slowly than when the first victim died in Italy on February 21.

The daily rate of new infections dropped to 4.1 per cent - a fraction of the 62 per cent level registered a month ago.

And the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 across the nation of 60 million people hit a new high with 1,590 people recovering in the past 24 hours.