Italy's number of active coronavirus cases has fallen for the first time, 2 months after its devastating outbreak began

• The head of Italy's civil protection service announced that the number of active coronavirus cases in Italy fell on Monday, for the first time since the outbreak began there, according to AFP.
• The drop — of just 20 people — is nonetheless a glimmer of hope for one of the worst-affected countries in the world, as death rates and new infection rates are also on a broad downward trend.
• Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he would announce plans to continue easing the country's lockdown by the end of the week.
• There have been 181,228 cases in Italy, and 24,114 people have died there of the virus.
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The number of active coronavirus cases in Italy fell for the first time on Monday, two months after the country's battle against the virus began.

Angelo Borelli, head of the country's civil protection service, told reporters that there were 108,237 active cases of the virus, down from 108,257 the day before, according to AFP.

"For the first time, we have seen a new positive development," Borelli said, according to AFP.

The active cases number is the total number of infections minus those who have recovered and those who have died.

Here is a graph of active cases, via the data-tracking website Worldometers:

With deaths trending downwards, and new cases at their lowest in just over six weeks, that 20-person difference in active cases is a glimmer of hope for one of the world's worst-affected countries.

At the height of the pandemic, 919 people in Italy were reported dead from the virus on a single day. On Tuesday that number had more than halved, to 454.

On Tuesday, the reported number of 2,256 new cases of the virus also suggested a slowing of its spread. It is the lowest number of new cases since March 10 — the day Italy went into nationwide lockdown — when 977 new cases were reported.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte suggested in a Facebook post on Tuesday that further easing of Italy's lockdown is coming on May 4, though not a total re-opening.

"It's far too easy to say: 'We open everything,'" wrote Conte. Instead, he promised a detailed plan taking into account the needs of industries, services and different parts of the country, to be announced by the end of the week.

Some shops have already reopened on a trial basis in Italy, and forestry workers and some manufacturers have returned to work, according to The Guardian.