Doctors and nurses in overwhelmed hospitals in northern Italy have welcomed a slight stabilising in the number of infections, but fears are rising that the coronavirus is still silently spreading in the south two weeks into the nationwide shutdown.
Virologists have warned that the actual number of Italy's positive cases is up to five times as high as the official count of 80,589.
That means infections will still climb even with Italians ordered to stay home for all but essential activity. Italy, the epicentre of Europe's pandemic, has by far the most virus deaths of any nation in the world, a grim tally of 8,215.
Despite the toll, officials have expressed cautious optimism that the exponential spread is starting to slow in the hard-hit