Rome, Dec 31 (IANS): Italy reported 126,888 new cases of coronavirus, the first time the country has recorded more than 100,000 cases in one day.
A previous record had been set on Wednesday with 98,030 cases. However, Thursday's increase was the largest in one day during the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported.
Thursday's figure represents more than 2 per cent of a total of nearly 6 million cases recorded since the start of the pandemic.
The high number in Italy is part of a wider trend across Europe, fueled mostly by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.
Italy ranks third in the total number of Covid-19 infections in the European Union, behind only France and Germany.
The increase in cases are coming despite a broadly successful vaccination rollout. As of Thursday, nearly 86 per cent of the population over the age of 12 years had been fully vaccinated in the country.