The number of new COVID-19 cases in Italy dropped slightly on Monday, as the current anti-COVID measures are to be extended until the end of this month.

The country's total confirmed cases reached 278,784, after 1,108 cases were added over the last 24 hours, the official statistics from the Health Ministry showed.

The previous day registered a daily increase of 1,297.

Some 32,993 were active infections, rising by 915 cases from Sunday, and the death toll stood at 35,553 after 12 more deaths were recorded.

Of all those active infections, some 31,132 people are currently isolated at home with mild symptoms or none at all, while about 1,719 patients are hospitalized, and 142 are in intensive care units.

Some 223 new recoveries were also registered on Monday, bringing to 210,238 the total of people recovered since the pandemic broke out here in late February, according to the data.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was expected to sign a new decree late on Monday in order to extend the main anti-COVID measures in the country until Sept. 30.

The provision, said the government, was necessary to confirm the key rules adopted in the previous months to contain the spread of infections, and especially the new ones introduced on Aug. 7 (with a decree that expired on Monday).

Among the measures added to the country's comprehensive response to COVID-19 in August -- in an effort to curb a rising trend in new infections -- were the mandatory use of face masks in open places between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., and the temporary closure of all dance halls.

The new decree will also comprise the safety rules for the school year 2020/2021 agreed between the central government and the regional authorities, which were already being implemented in these days, as pupils of all grades were gradually going back to their classrooms.

The rules required teachers and staff to wear face masks all the time, and students in primary and secondary schools (from 6 to 18 years old) when the one-meter safety distance rule cannot be observed.

As for school transport, daily sanitation of all buses is required, the installation of hand sanitizers on buses, and mask wearing for the entire journey are mandatory.

While the new school year would officially begin on Sept. 14, the northeast Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto regions moved ahead with the opening on Monday.

From nurseries to secondary schools, all pupils in the two regions went back to their classrooms for the first time since March 10, when schools in the country were shut after a national lockdown was declared.

The move included children in the town of Vo' Euganeo (Veneto), which was one of the first two coronavirus hotbeds that emerged in mid-February, and where Italy's first coronavirus victim was registered.

Also on Monday, doctors at the San Raffaele hospital in northern Milan said the health conditions of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 83, were getting better.

"His overall clinical picture appears to be improving," Alberto Zangrillo, head of the general and cardiovascular intensive care unit, said in a bulletin.

Berlusconi had been admitted to the hospital late Thursday after being tested positive for the coronavirus.

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