In the last 24 hours, 601 people have died in Italy from the Chinese coronavirus, bringing the nation’s total death toll from the virus to 6,077 on Monday, up from 5,476 on Sunday — an increase of 11 percent in one day.

Newly released data from Italy’s Civil Protection revealed that the country’s death toll has gone from 5,476 deaths on Sunday to 6,078 on Monday, as well as from 59,138 confirmed cases on Sunday to 63,919 on Monday.

On Saturday, Italy had seen its worst day yet, losing a total of 793 people in a single day to the virus that originated in Wuhan, China. Sunday’s death toll showed a slight decline from the day earlier, with Monday’s decreasing as well.

“This is the very important week to evaluate the progress of the epidemiological curves” said Silvio Brusaferro, the president of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) — the leading technical-scientific body of Italy’s National Health Service — during a press conference on Monday, according to La Repubblica.

“Our commitment is to prevent the curves that occurred in the north from occurring in the south,” he added. “At the moment, the contribution is very small in the south.”

While the Wuhan virus remains heavily concentrated in Italy’s northern regions, there have been reports of fears that the disease may spread south, as swarms of young Italians attending college in Italy’s heavily-infected north fled home to Italy’s southern Puglia region, where they infected their parents.

Meanwhile, the governor of Sicily, Nello Musumeci, is warning people not to step foot inside his southern region, proclaiming that “Sicilians are not meat for the slaughter.”

“The government will intervene because we Sicilians are not slaughter meat,” said Musumeci, referring to the continuous arrivals from other regions despite the national lockdown, according to La Repubblica.

“I am told that many unauthorized people are disembarking in Calabria in Messina,” he added. “This is not possible, and I do not accept that this happens. I have asked for the government to intervene immediately — I demand that the [decree] be respected.”

As forth mayor of Messina, he decided to take things a step further.

“Tonight, I will personally put a stop to indiscriminate landings,” said Messina mayor Cateno De Luca. “And I am waiting for someone to come forward to arrest me.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.