Italy reported its second-deadliest day of the coronavirus outbreak, dashing hopes the death toll is declining in a country where hospitals are bursting at the seams and the government is struggling to bring the crisis under control.

Deaths on Tuesday rose again to 743, after falling in each of the last two days, civil protection authorities said at their daily news conference in Rome. Confirmed cases in the country now total 69,176. One bit of positive news in the latest data showed active cases rose the least in nearly a week -- a possible early indication that the severe restriction of movement in the country is slowing the spread of the virus.

"Today, unfortunately, we register 743 deaths," Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy's National Civil Protection Agency said.

The total number of fatalities has reached 6,820.

Meanwhile, 3,600 new cases were registered -- the number of new cases has been lowering for the third day in a row.

"The number of the recoveries increased by 894 people, there are 8,326 of them now," Borrelli said.

As of Tuesday, Italy has 54,030 active coronavirus cases, not counting deaths and recoveries.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government may impose fines of up to 4,000 euros ($4,300) for violations of a nationwide lockdown as the country struggles to counter Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, Ansa news agency reported.

The Tuesday figures “show the country still isn’t able to report a real, generalized slowdown of the contagion," Lorenzo Pregliasco, co-founder of researcher YouTrend, said in a phone interview.

Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said earlier that the economy contracted “sharply" in March and will likely do so in April too, assuming coronavirus containment measures continue. The baseline scenario is for a recovery from May onward, with the economy contracting by “a few" percentage points in 2020.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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