Italy's daily death toll continued to fall as a further 433 people had died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 23,660, official data showed.
Sunday's number of new deaths was the smallest in a week. It also represented the fourth time in five days that the number of victims of the global pandemic fell in Italy.
The total number of confirmed cases -- combining active infections, fatalities and recoveries -- rose to 178,972, a daily increase of 3,047 against Saturday, according to fresh figures from the Civil Protection Department. The number of new infections was slightly lower than the number of 3,491 recorded a day earlier.
Also, there were 2,128 additional recoveries in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 47,055, since the pandemic first broke out in the northern Lombardy region on Feb. 21.
Of the total 108,257 active infections, 2,635 patients are in intensive care, down by 98 compared to the previous day.
In a social media post uploaded late on Saturday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the national quarantine, first put into place on March 10, could be partially lifted starting May 4, the day after the current lockdown deadline.
Conte said the easing of protection measures would be "based on a well-articulated program that reconciles the protection of citizens' health and the need for economic production."
But Conte also brushed aside media speculation that the lockdown would be lifted earlier in some parts of the country. He said that to whatever extent the quarantine was lifted it would be done on the same terms across the country.
The national lockdown will be followed by a so-called "Phase Two," involving "the gradual resumption of social, economic and productive activities," the Italian government has explained.
Sunday marked the first time since late February that the country's Civil Protection Department did not hold a daily briefing, another sign that the situation is improving. Civil Protection chief Angelo Borrelli said in a statement released Saturday that going forward live, on-air briefings would only take place on Mondays and Thursdays.
"We will continue to release information from the government and to update statistics on a daily basis," Borrelli's statement said. "But there is no longer a need for a daily update."
On social media, Italians said they missed the presence of Borrelli, who has become a national figure as one of the faces of the country's efforts to contain the outbreak.
Elsewhere in the country, the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists (FNOMCeO) revealed that the number of physicians who lost their lives to the outbreak has reached 131, the highest total in Europe. That does not include many dozens of nurses and other medical personnel working on the front lines of Italy's efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
The latest developments come after reports from the agricultural union Coldiretti said that the pandemic has pushed nearly two out of five agricultural firms to the brink of collapse. If that happens, Coldiretti said, Italy could have difficulty producing enough food for the country.
In the Italian capital, officials from AS Roma, a top-division football team, announced that players and other staff would forgo pay for four months as the team struggles with a suspension of the Serie A football season. According to media reports, other sports teams could follow suit.
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