Italy has reported its highest number of coronavirus-related deaths in one day, with 919 deaths announced on Friday.
It has also surpassed China in the number of confirmed cases, with 86,498 cases compared to China's 81,897, according to Italy's Civil Protection Agency.
The hardest-hit region of Lombardy reported a sharp rise in fatalities compared with the day before, with 541 more deaths.
Italy has the highest death toll of any country, recording 9,134 deaths.
Prior to Friday's figure, the largest daily death toll was reported on March 21st, when 793 people were said to have died.
Some 10,950 of those infected in the country had fully recovered on Friday, compared to 10,361 the day before.
Italy has the most COVID-19 related deaths, followed by Spain on 4,858 and China's Hubei province on 3,174.
Following Hubei is Iran on 2,378, France on 1,696 and the UK on 769.
But it is the US that has the most number of confirmed cases worldwide after overtaking China on Thursday.
It has had more than 90,000 positive tests as of 5.00pm on Friday, moving ahead of China, where the disease originally emerged back in December.
Ireland reported a jump in deaths on Thursday, with the toll here rising to 19.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) also reported 255 new confirmed cases of the virus.
This brought the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland to 1,819.
Of those for whom transmission status was known community transmission accounted for 51%, close contact accounted for 22% and travel abroad accounted for 27%.
