Staff assigned for Coronavirus tests at the Martini hospital in Turin seen as northern Italy is locked down to try prevent the spread of Coronavirus on February 24, 2020 in Turin, Italy.

Italy is boosting its financial stimulus to assist its coronavirus-hit economy this week as the number of confirmed cases of the virus continues to rise, and hospitals in the worst-hit region are forced to turn to the private sector for help.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 2,041 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country and 52 deaths. Hospitals in the region of Lombardy — the epicenter of Italy's outbreak with 1254 cases of the virus, 38 deaths and where 10 towns remain under lockdown — are struggling to cope and have called on the private health sector to come to their aid.

Private hospitals in the region have been asked "lend" beds in their intensive care units to the public healthcare system, creating "mini-wards" for patients who have tested positive for Covid-19, newspaper La Repubblica reported Tuesday. One lead virologist in Milan described Lombardy's hospitals as being close to breaking point, in "severe crisis" and registering an "overload" of patients, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Meanwhile, Milan's Mayor Beppe Sala called on the Italian government, and Europe, for financial assistance. "Milan is a city that has always given, at this moment it must be in a position to ask," he said in the City Council Monday, the newspaper Il Giorno Milano reported.

The impact of the virus has felt the most in Italy's wealthiest regions of Lombardy and Veneto, where the financial hub of Milan and the tourism hotspot of Venice are located. Italy's lucrative tourism industry is expected to be particularly badly hit, with mass hotel cancellations reported and several countries, including the U.S., advising against travel to Italy.