Italy’s Ventina glacier in northern Lombardy has melted so much due to climate change that geologists can no longer measure it the way they have for the past 130 years.

One of Giovanni Airoli’s sows tested positive for African swine fever in late August.

Mock coffins have filled one of Milan’s most famous squares in a protest organized by Italy’s second-largest union to raise awareness over workplace deaths.

Authorities say two Italian intelligence agents and one retired Israel agent were among the four dead when a sudden storm sank a houseboat hired for a pleasure cruise this weekend on a northern Italian lake.

Italian firefighters say that they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized in a sudden, violent storm.

Italy has entered a three-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown to deter Easter travel and get-togethers.

The so-called UK variant is of greatest concern in the 53 countries monitored by WHO in Europe. We have to hold the fort and be very vigilant.”AdIn Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy’s spring surge, intensive care wards are again filling up, with more than two-thirds of new positive tests being the UK variant, health officials said. Poland is opening temporary hospitals and imposing a partial lockdown as the U.K. variant has grown from 10% of all infections in February to 25% now. AdAustria's health minister said Saturday the U.K. variant is now dominant in his country. It took the brunt in the resurgence in November and December, and was caught completely off guard when the U.K. variant arrived, racing through schoolage children before hitting families at home.

Italys northern Lombardy region, where Europe's coronavirus outbreak erupted last year, asked the national government Thursday to send more vaccines north to help stem a surge of new cases that are taxing the hospital system in the province of Brescia. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)ROME – Italy’s northern Lombardy region, where Europe's coronavirus outbreak erupted last year, asked the national government Thursday for more vaccines to help stem a surge of new COVID-19 cases that are taxing the health system in the province of Brescia. Lombardy only recently began vaccinating people aged over 80, after prioritizing health care workers and residents of nursing homes. Lombardy as a whole still accounts for nearly a third of Italy's 96,974 confirmed COVID-19 dead, and a fifth of its 2.87 million confirmed infections. AdItaly's vaccine campaign, which has administered 3.92 million doses, has been slowed by delays in deliveries from the three pharmaceutical companies supplying the European Union: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

A view of the Vo Vecchio cemetery, in Vo Euganeo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. Shockwaves ran through the wine-making village of Vo, west of Venice, as word spread last Feb. 21 that a retired roofer had died of the new coronavirus becoming the first known COVID-19 victim in the West. AdAdriano Trevisan’s death sent shockwaves through the town west of Venice. That indicated that the virus had been circulating in the town since the end of January, according to Crisanti. “The virus in Vo arrived in Vo and died in Vo,” the mayor said of the first cases a year ago.

Italy’s Superior Institute of Health reported last week that the British variant represented some 18% of all new infections, but predicted that the number would rise quickly as the variant spread. The institute has warned that new restrictions could become necessary to keep the health care system from once again buckling under. It was to feature the intensive care doctor who diagnosed Italy’s first locally transmitted case, as well as the opening of a commemorative art exhibit dedicated to health care workers worldwide. AdIn addition to the Brescia anniversary event, officials in Codogno were planning a daylong commemoration, featuring a Mass and the inauguration of a memorial to COVID-19 victims. Italy had prioritized health care workers and residents of nursing homes with its first doses, but many regions are already two weeks into the over-80 vaccination campaign.

The Bergamo probe, though, has now expanded beyond the lockdown issue to look into Italy’s preparedness going into the pandemic, investigators say. A scandal over a spiked World Health Organization report into Italy’s response has revealed that the country's influenza pandemic preparedness plan hadn’t been updated since 2006. Lombardy officials have defended their handling of the outbreak, while those responsible for updating the pandemic plan have noted that the 2006 document was a set of guidelines for an influenza pandemic, not a coronavirus one. The pandemic plan isn't the only headache for Lombardy officials. ___Follow AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at:https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemichttps://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccinehttps://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

People take pictures of themselves with the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York on Christmas day, Friday, Dec. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)PARIS — French health authorities have confirmed the country’s first case of the virus variant that prompted strict new lockdown measures in Britain and global travel restrictions. There were 3,123 newly confirmed cases of the virus and another 973 probable cases, according to the health department. In his Christmas Day message on Friday, he urged that the vulnerable and the needy be first in line. Beijing is also on high alert after two asymptomatic cases were reported Thursday, in addition to two confirmed cases last week.

Nowhere in Italy is poverty more evident than in Lombardy, the northern region that has been the pandemic epicenter in both surges. Simone, who has two adult children and a 10-year-old son at home, is typical of Italy's new poor. More than 40 organizations provide food on a daily basis in Milan, Italy’s financial capital. So far, government moratoriums on evictions and the firing of contracted workers have helped keep a cap on what charity workers see as an emerging poverty crisis. “When these are lifted, we will see the real price that we need to pay for this pandemic,’’ Chiavarini said.

An oxygen canister is carried on a stretcher outside the first aid department of the Cardarelli hospital in Naples, Italy, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Others bundle up their loved ones and head north, where Italian health care enjoys a better reputation — but many hospitals there are also overwhelmed. In Italy's health care system, each region manages its own spending. Italy’s Civil Protection force is currently recruiting 450 doctors to help the region care for COVID-19 patients. Only weeks before the pandemic began did Campania’s public health care system emerge from years of central government control, part of efforts to cut waste and drive down costs.

(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)MILAN – Dr. Luca Cabrini was certain his hospital in the heart of Lombardy‘s lake district would reach its breaking point caring for 300 COVID-19 patients. The hospital expanded its 20-bed ICU ward to 45 beds during Italy’s deadly spring peak. As of Wednesday, 52% of Italy's hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, above the 40% warning threshold set by the Health Ministry. Lombardy, Italy's most populous and productive region, is again the epicenter of Italy’s pandemic, following resurgences in Spain, France and most of Europe that have also put hospitals under dire pressure. The average age of coronavirus patients being hospitalized in Italy has gone down this fall, even if the most severe cases winding up in ICU wards are still among the elderly.

A city police officer walks in the Vittorio Emanuele II gallery shopping arcade in downtown Milan, Italy, Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. Even the lighter restrictions this time around, however, are drawing stiff criticism — especially in countries like Britain and Italy where they have exacerbated regional tensions. In Rome, Italy’s health minister faced Parliament to defend the government’s handling of the new phase of the crisis amid concerns the government has too often bypassed lawmakers during the pandemic. Lombardy's latest caseload surged to nearly 10,000, accounting for more than 25% of Italy's new confirmed infections on Friday. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, rejected such differential treatment within regions, which share a common health care system.

The state reported 103 infections that day, the largest single day increase in cases. France’s government has shut down all nonessential businesses and ordered people to stay indoors for the next month to slow accelerating virus infections, hospitalizations and deaths. The Geneva canton, or region, said the University Hospitals of Geneva on Sunday counted 474 people hospitalized with coronavirus infections, including 56 in intensive care. Iran has reported more than 620,000 confirmed virus cases in all. Montenegro recently has seen a surge in virus cases.

— Italy’s leader has imposed at least a month of new restrictions across the country to fight rising coronavirus infections. ___Follow all of AP’s coronavirus pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak___HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:DENVER — Colorado Gov. Before that, the most cases reported in the United States on a single day had been 77,362 on July 16. On Sunday, the institute reported 11,176 new daily infections, almost double the number reported a week ago Sunday. —-NEW DELHI — India’s daily coronavirus cases have dropped to nearly 50,000, maintaining a downturn over the last few weeks.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis says those measures should prevent the collapse of the health system in early November. The nation of 67 million jumped closer to the 1 million infections mark, with 999,043 confirmed cases by Thursday evening. Health Minister Jens Spahn, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, was quarantined at home. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced a three-tier alert system last week for England. Cyprus made mask wearing mandatory for anyone older than 12 in outdoor public spaces after daily infections hit record numbers in the last two weeks.

J.B. Pritzker says President Donald Trump and his allies in Illinois are partly to blame for a surge in coronavirus cases in the state. The first-term Democrat says Trump’s local allies are encouraging people not to follow COVID-19 restrictions. The number of new daily COVID-19 cases recorded in El Paso soared Thursday to a record-breaking 838. ___COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The South Carolina State Fair is coming to Columbia, but like so much during the COVID-19 pandemic, it will be drive-thru. His death at 67 on March 11 death shocked the Italian medical establishment and underlined the risk that the coronavirus pandemic to family doctors.

A medical staffer takes swabs as she tests for COVID-19 at a drive-through at the San Paolo hospital, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. Coronavirus infections are surging again in the Italian northern region where the pandemic first took hold in Europe, putting pressure again on hospitals and health care workers. For the medical personnel in Lombardy who fought the virus the first time around, the long-predicted rebound came too soon. Italy is not the only European country seeing a resurgence in confirmed virus cases. On Wednesday, at least 100 cars were lined up for on-demand drive-thru testing at the San Paolo hospital where Settembrese works.

With limited supplies of coronavirus tests available, the Pentagon is focusing first on testing those performing duties deemed most vital to national security. Here are some of AP’s top stories Sunday on the world’s coronavirus pandemic. WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:— During the pandemic, Detroit — the nation’s largest majority black U.S. city — is grieving collectively. One of the best ways to prevent the spread of the virus is to wash one's hands with soap and water. ___ONE NUMBER:— 7,000: The number of coronavirus tests being administered per day to U.S. military personnel.