According to Health Ministry figures released on Sunday, 192 cases were registered in the previous 24 hours, compared to 235 in Saturday's tally.

Feeding some of those recent increases, concerned authorities have said, were hotspots of contagion blamed on infected people entering Italy.

Among them was a businessman in northeast Italy who took ill after driving back from a trip in Serbia but despite a fever attended a funeral and a birthday party shortly after he returned home.

That man is now hospitalised in intensive care.

The majority of Italy's 20 regions registered a handful or fewer of new cases on Sunday.

Italy's confirmed coronavirus infections as of Sunday total 241,611.

Including the seven deaths registered on Sunday across the country, 34,861 people with confirmed coronavirus have died in Italy during the pandemic.

Australian Associated Press