The COVID-19 cases in Italy exceeded one million on Wednesday, official statistics by the Health Ministry showed.

Some 32,961 new cases were registered on a daily basis, which brought the country's total to 1,028,424 -- comprising active infections, recoveries, and fatalities -- since the pandemic officially broke out here in late February.

Of all the new daily cases, some 23,248 were new active infections, and the total figure of actively infected people in the country thus rose to 613,358.

The vast majority, or 580,833, are currently isolated at home because they are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. Another 29,444 patients are hospitalized, and 3,081 are in intensive care -- 10 more than Tuesday.

The Health Ministry's data also showed that recoveries grew by 9,090 on a daily basis to total 372,113, while 623 fresh fatalities pushed the country's death toll to 42,953.

In order to slow down the second wave of the pandemic, Italy's government sealed off five more regions that showed a middle risk of contagion, with people's movements strictly limited and some non-essential business closed starting on Wednesday.

Adding to these were the "red-zone" regions and provinces (five in total, including northern Lombardy), which were considered at high risk and subjected to a soft lockdown since last week.

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