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The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 627 to 4,032, officials said on Friday, an increase of 18.4 per cent — by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago.

On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious virus.

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Until Friday, Italy had never recorded more than 475 deaths in a single day, while China, where the contagion has slowed sharply, has never reported more than 150.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 10,000 people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the World Health Organization said the disease is now infecting people at a faster pace. It took three months for the first 100,000 cases, but only 12 days for the next 100,000.

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