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

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

Coronavirus in Italy

OnehundredItaliandoctorshave succumbed to novel coronavirus since the pandemic reached Italy in February, according to the country's FNOMCeO health association said on Thursday.

"The number ofdoctorswho havediedbecause of COVID-19 is 100 -- perhaps even 101 at the moment, unfortunately," FNOMCeO spokesman reportedly told AFP.

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The toll includes retireddoctorsthe government began calling in a month ago to help fight a coronavirus that has officially claimed a world-topping 17,669 lives in Italy.

Italianmedia reports estimate that 30 nurses and nursing assistants have alsodiedof COVID-19.

"We can longer allow ourdoctors, our health workers, to be sent to fight without any protection against thevirus," 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)

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