ROME, June 27 -- The Italian Health Ministry said Saturday that 97 COVID-19 patients are in the ICU, of whom almost half, or 43 patients, are in the northern Lombardy region.

Eight people succumbed to the virus over the past 24 hours (compared to 30 victims on Friday), pushing the overall death toll to 34,716.

Also on Saturday, Italian health officials recorded 175 fresh cases of infection from the novel coronavirus, down from 259 new cases on Friday, and there were 16,836 total active infections across the country.

Of these active cases, 1,260 people were hospitalized with symptoms and 15,479 were quarantined at home because they are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms.

A total of 188,584 patients have recovered, the ministry said.

The northern, densely populated and highly industrialized Lombardy region still had the lion's share of cases among Italy's 20 regions, with 10,992 active cases, 16,626 deaths, and over 66,000 recoveries.

The region with the least cases was Valle d'Aosta, which is located in the Alps mountains and borders France and Switzerland, with four active infections and 146 deaths.

Lombardy had just over 10 million inhabitants and Valle d'Aosta had almost 126,000 residents as of Jan. 1 last year, according to the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).

The overall number of COVID-19 infections, fatalities, and recoveries rose to 240,136 cases over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

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