Rome, Dec 1 (IANS): Active coronavirus infections in Italy has decreased by 7,300 on a daily average, as the incumbent restrictions in the country have led to the slowing down of the second wave of the pandemic, according to health officials.

On Monday, the country reported 16,377 new cases, taking the overall infection tally to 1,601,554, Xinhua news agency quoted the Health Ministry as saying.

However, active coronavirus infections were 788,471 on Monday, down from 795,771 on Sunday, the latest statistics revealed.

The large majority of all those actively infected were isolated at home with mild symptoms, the Ministry said.

Another 33,187 are currently hospitalized (up from 32,879 on Sunday), and 3,744 are in intensive care (down from 3,753 on Sunday).

The daily drop in active cases came after a slowdown in the contagion rate across the country over the last two weeks.

Data also showed 23,004 new recoveries and 672 new fatalities were recorded on Monday.

The number of people recovered since the pandemic officially broke out here in late February rose to 757,507, while the country's death toll grew to 55,576.

Earlier this month, the government had introduced a three-tiered system that split the country into three zones (red for the highest risk, orange for medium risk, and yellow for low risk) according to the level of virus transmission and the situation of the public health system in each region.