Italian officials said 250 people have died from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, marking a record number of deaths from the illness within such a timespan.

The Italian Civil Protection Agency reported the increase Friday, which raised the country's death toll from coronavirus to 1,266 people, according to The Associated Press. The spike in cases has shifted the focus on the outbreak from China to Europe.

"More cases are now being reported every day [in Europe] than were being reported by China at the height of its epidemic," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. He also called the reported 5,000 deaths worldwide a "tragic milestone."

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