ROME: Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says he has no words for those who deny the coronavirus pandemic except to look at the numbers.
Pandemic deniers and those against masks and vaccines are expected to rally in Rome on Saturday.
Conte said: To those people gathering in Rome today and who think the pandemic doesn't exist, we reply with numbers: More than 274,000 infected and some 35,000 dead.Period.
The daily case load, after dropping down to below 200 at the start of summer, surpassed more than 1,700 on Friday, the biggest one-day increase since early May.
Many of the recent infections have occurred in returning vacationers, most of them young people.
Conte says, if things go badly, we'll be able to intervene in a targeted and very circumscribed way to manage any dramatic surge.
His country was hard hit when the outbreak first erupted in Europe and went into lockdown.
Italy has confirmed nearly 275,000 coronavirus cases and counts 35,518 known dead.