news from the BBC live feed.
360 new deaths in Lombardy
The death toll in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s virus outbreak, has risen by around 360 in a day to more than 3,450, a source has told Reuters.
The number of cases in the region, which includes Italy’s financial capital Milan, has increased by around 2,590 to more than 28,370. However, a number of results were still awaiting confirmation and it was not clear if they would be added later.
Sunday’s figures represented an improvement on Saturday, when the death toll in the region rose by 546 and new cases increased by 3,251. The national death toll is due to be released later on Sunday. The tally stood at 4,825 on Saturday - the highest in the world
Those figures look to be regional rather than national. The figures are shocking but there is a suggestion in both the Spanish and Italian figures that their epidemic is no longer accelerating....by that I mean that the growth in the number of new cases each day is no longer growing. This is still not clear but just pointing out that within the alarming news there is a hint that the epidemic in Spain and Italy maybe reaching its peak. I am not sure about Italy. I think it's moving from those small Norther towns, to Lombardy and then to the South. The South is poorer.