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Italy recorded 250 coronavirus deaths in a 24-hour period — the most in the country in a single day — as the number of COVID-19 fatalities there reached 1,266, according to official data released Friday.

The country also recorded more than 2,500 new cases of the virus in that period, bringing the total to more than 17,000.

A nurse in northern Italy said that fighting the virus was like being in the middle of “a world war.”

Hospitals like this one in Brescia are packed as Italy battles the scourge, which earlier this week took the life of Dr. Roberto Stella, 67, the head of a medical association in a region heavily hit by the virus.

With wires