In the last 24 hours, 727 people have died in Italy from the Chinese coronavirus, bringing the nation’s overall death toll to 13,155 as of Wednesday — an increase of 5.8 percent in one day. The percentage, however, has been on a decline for the past few days, while some Italian officials say they believe that Italy has already reached its “peak.”

Newly released data from Italy’s Civil Protection reveals that the country’s death toll from the virus has risen from 12,428 on Tuesday to 13,155 on Wednesday. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has also risen from 105,792 to 110,574.

An additional 727 people have died in Italy from the Wuhan coronavirus in a single day, which is 110 fewer than the day earlier.

“We have reached the peak of the infections,” said the head of Italy’s Higher Institute of Health — Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) — Silvio Brusaferro during a press conference on Tuesday.

“The curve shows us that it seems we are reaching a sort of plateau — the phase in which the peak remains stable for a certain period,” he added. “This figure that shows us that the measures are working.”

Brusaferro added that while they believe Italy has reached its peak with regards to the Wuhan coronavirus, now is not the time for people to let their guards down.

“We can’t give up or the epidemic can start again,” he said.

Among the 727 people who have died in Italy in the last 24 hours, 394 of them were from Lombardy — Italy’s worst-infected region with the coronavirus, as well as the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe.

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