A priest wearing a face mask checks a book of funeral rites as he gives the last blessing to a deceased person, by a coffin during a funeral ceremony outside the cemetery of Bolgare, Lombardy, on March 23, 2020 during the COVID-19 new coronavirus pandemic.

Italians woke up Tuesday with a glimmer of hope as the coronavirus death toll in the country appeared to have slowed down.

The number of deaths rose by 601 on Monday, the smallest increase in four days, according to data from the Italian authorities. The number of new confirmed cases also slowed Monday. These figures have raised expectations that the worse could be over for the country with the highest number of deaths from the virus worldwide.

However, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said Italy had not yet reached the "most acute phase" of the infection.

"It is early to say" when this crisis will be over, Conte told the newspaper La Stampa on Monday.

Italy has been in national lockdown since early March and it is scheduled to last until April 3. There have been 63,927 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy and 6,077 deaths, but 7,432 people have recovered from the illness.