Italy reported 71 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday against 52 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 4,720 from 3,361 .

Italy has registered 129,638 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth-highest in the world. The country has reported 4.58 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 4,307 on Tuesday, up from 4,302 a day earlier.

There were 40 new admissions to intensive care units, increasing from 32 on Monday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 563 from a previous 570.

Some 318,865 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 134,393, the health ministry said. (Reporting by Giulia Segreti, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)