ROME, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Italy's COVID-19 positivity rate continued to decline on Tuesday but the percentage of those requiring intensive treatment was on the rise.
The country's Health Ministry reported 83,555 new cases on Tuesday, more than three times the number registered a day earlier and the steepest increase in more than two months.
But the positivity rate, the percentage of people who have tested positive, has actually fallen due to an increase in the number of tests performed, from a little more than 100,000 on Monday to over 700,000 on Tuesday. Accordingly, the positivity rate dropped to 11.6 percent from 24.5 percent on Monday.
Meanwhile, the percentage of COVID-19 patients in intensive care climbed above 3 percent on Monday for the first time since the beginning of this year. The respective figure was 2 percent on Sunday.
In the 24-hour period ending on Tuesday, 69 people lost their lives to coronavirus compared to 63 a day earlier.
