Coronavirus: Italy hits milestone of 1,000 deaths since first case

Italy, the centre of Europe's coronavirus pandemic, has hit the milestone of 1,000 deaths since it saw its first cases in mid-February.

The country's positive cases continued their upward trend on Thursday, registering 15,113 confirmed cases and the death toll hit 1,016.

More than half of those who are in intensive care in Italy are located in hard-hit Lombardy province, which on Thursday reported 605 ICU patients in a region with only 610 ICU beds.

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• READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: 24 new cases taking country total to 60Hospitals in Lombardy are overflowing with the dead.

Lombardy's top healthcare official Giulio Gallera said that at the request of the hospitals, the region had simplified the bureaucracy needed to process death certificates and bury the dead.