Italy reports 429 coronavirus deaths on Friday, 15,943 new cases

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy reported 429 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday against 380 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 15,943 from 16,974.

Italy has registered 116,366 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the seventh-highest in the world. The country has reported 3.84 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 24,743 on Friday, down from 25,587 a day earlier.

There were 199 new admissions to intensive care units, decreasing from 211 on Thursday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 3,366 from a previous 3,417.

Some 327,704 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 319,633, the health ministry said.

(Reporting by Maria Pia Quaglia, editing by Giulia Segreti)