Rome, May 14 (IANS): Italy's main coronavirus indicators has continued to improve, more than two weeks into the country's latest easing of restrictions, as vaccine rollout is gaining steam nationwide.

The total number of fully vaccinated residents in Italy was on the cusp of 8 million, reports Xinhua news agency.

As of Thursday, 25.6 million people in Italy have received at least one dose of an approved Covid jab, which means 13.4 per cent of the country's overall population has been fully vaccinated and over 42 per cent at least partially vaccinated.

Overall, Italy recorded just over 8,000 new infections in the 24-hour period ending Thursday, with 201 deaths reported over the same period.

The number of new infections was under 10,000 for the fifth consecutive day.

Meanwhile, the daily number of deaths has been staying below 500 since April 9, and has now been below 300 for nine consecutive days.

The total number of patients in intensive-care units was 1,893 on Thursday, a drop of 99 compared to Wednesday and 597 fewer than 10 days ago.

With recovered individuals outnumbering new cases again, the total number of active coronavirus cases in Italy continued its steady decline starting from early April, falling to just over 346,000 on Thursday.

The Gimbe Foundation, a health care research entity, and health analysts attributed the recent improvements to the country's vaccination program.

The Gimbe Foundation's calculations showed that over the week of May 5-11, the number of new cases was 19.0 per cent lower than the previous week, deaths were 15.4 per cent lower, while the intensive-care unit cases were 45.1 per cent lower than 35 days ago.

Despite the success, the foundation called for the government to begin actively pushing for vaccinations in high-risk categories rather than the current volunteer system.

The improved indicators are reflected in the government's colour-coded health restriction scheme.

Until April 25, the entire country was categorized either as "red" or "orange" -- the two most restrictive categories.

Now, none of the 20 regions are in the "red" category and three in "orange," with the rest in the "yellow" group, the second least restrictive category.

As of Friday morning, Italy, one of the hardest hit European countries, has reported a total of 4,139,160 coronavirus cases, with 123,745 deaths.