Italy could look to ease some of its stringent lockdown restrictions at the end of April, the country's prime minister has said, once again calling on Europe to help the country at the epicenter of the continent's outbreak.

It comes as Italy looks to have overcome the worst in terms of daily infections and deaths from the coronavirus, but recent hopes of a peak elsewhere in Europe have been dashed in recent days.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Wednesday that the national lockdown in Italy, in place since March 9, could only be eased gradually.

"We need to pick sectors that can restart their activity. If scientists confirm it, we might begin to relax some measures already by the end of this month," he told the BBC.

Italy has seen its daily death toll come down dramatically from a peak of 919 deaths on March 27; on Wednesday, it recorded 542 deaths, Italy's Civil Protection Agency noted.

But although the daily figures might be falling in Italy, the coronavirus continues to take its toll. To date, 17,699 people have died from the virus in the country, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and Prime Minister Conte noted that "behind the numbers are names and surnames, life stories and broken families. The Italian nation is suffering."

The total number of confirmed cases in Italy now stands at 139,422 (this includes those that have died and recovered) although the true number could be far higher. Nevertheless, Italy's testing regime, like Germany's, is seen as much more robust than other countries, for example the U.K.'s, which is still struggling to implement mass testing.

Conte, who has been pushing (along with other European nations, mainly in the south) for Europe to issue joint bonds as a way to help restart the region's economy, said once again that the European project risked failing if leaders didn't act.

"If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real," he said. There is resistance from Germany and the Netherlands over the issuing of joint debt, or "corona bonds," however.