Italy’s COVID-19 deaths are down slightly from the previous day.

Civil Protection officials said there were 889 deaths in a 24-hour period ending Saturday evening in the country, where intensive care units have been overwhelmed at the heart of the outbreak in the north. That compares to 969 a day earlier, which was a one-day high in the country which has the world’s highest number of deaths of persons with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

The day-to-day rise in new cases was just under 6,000, about the same as the previous day’s figure. Overall, Italy has at least 92,472 cases of COVID-19 and days ago surpassed the total of China, where the outbreak began in early 2020.

The current national lock-down decree expires on April 3, but health experts have said the need to try to contain contagion in the outbreak will likely last weeks beyond that.

Spain had its deadliest day yet during the coronavirus crisis with 832 deaths reported on Saturday for a total of 5,690 fatalities. Infections have increased by over 8,000 in 24 hours to reach a national total of 72,248.

Spain is approaching two weeks of its stay-at-home restrictions and store closings, but its infections and deaths keep rising. On Friday, Spain reported a total of 64,059 cases and 4,858 deaths.

The medical system is pushed to the limits in the hot spots in Madrid and northeast Catalonia. Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers are falling ill at an alarming rate and working non-stop.

Pablo Rojo, an ambulance medic at Barcelona’s Dos de Maig hospital, says: "They’re not 80 years old anymore, they are now 30 and 40 years old.”