One hundred Italian doctors have succumbed to novel coronavirus since the pandemic reached Italy in February, according to the country's FNOMCeO health association said on Thursday.

One hundred Italian doctors have succumbed to novel coronavirus since the pandemic reached Italy in February, according to the country's FNOMCeO health association said on Thursday. "The number of doctors who have died because of COVID-19 is 100 -- perhaps even 101 at the moment, unfortunately," FNOMCeO spokesman reportedly told AFP. The toll includes retired doctors the government began calling in a month ago to help fight a coronavirus that has officially claimed a world-topping 17,669 lives in Italy. Italian media reports estimate that 30 nurses and nursing assistants have also died of COVID-19. "We can longer allow our doctors, our health workers, to be sent to fight without any protection against the virus," FNOMCeO president Filippo Anelli said on the association's website. "It is an unfair fight." Rome's ISS public health institute estimates that 10 per cent of those infected with the novel coronavirus in Italy work in health care. There were 542 deaths from COVID-19 in Italy on Wednesday, lower than the 604 the day before, taking the total death toll to 17,669. There were 3,693 people in intensive care, down from 3,792 on Tuesday - the fifth daily decline in a row. The decline has raised hopes the virus is on the retreat thanks to a nationwide lockdown, though the number of new cases rose 3,836, compared with 3,039 on Tuesday, to reach 139,422, the third-highest globally behind the United States and Spain. (With inputs from agencies)

Over 100 doctors succumb to COVID-19 as Italy death toll crosses over 17,600

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Over 100 doctors succumb to COVID-19 as Italy death toll crosses over 17,600