professor valerie ramey, thank you forjoining us. ramey, thank you forjoining us.ber of confirmed cases in italy has gone up to 86,498 — past that of china. and 6% of those currently diagnosed with the disease — almost 4,000 people — are in intensive care. mark lowen is in rome. i think this was a bit of a shock, to some extent, that the death toll rose so significantly. over 200 more than the previous one—day rise. shocking figures. 919 people dead in the last 24 hours. it's like italy is losing the equivalent of a village every day. in lombardy, the northern region hardest hit by the virus, 541 people there died just in that region in the last day. now, the lockdown has been in place for more than two weeks here and it is flattening the curve, the infection rate is beginning to fall here. but it is slow, it is uneven progress. and just awful news keeps coming out every day. 46 doctors have now died here since the outbreak began. the national health institute says italy's yet to reach the peak of this outbreak and that the nationwide restrictions may now have to b