ROME (Reuters) - The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has risen by 18 over the past 24 hours to 52, the Civil Protection Agency said on Monday.

The accumulative number of cases in the country which has been hardest hit by the virus in Europe totaled 2036, up from 1,694 on Sunday.

The head of the agency said that of those originally infected, 149 people had recovered.

The contagion came to light 10 days ago and is focused mainly on a handful of hotspots in the north of Italy, with isolated cases reported in many other regions.