Italy reports 167,206 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, 426 deaths

MILAN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Italy reported 167,206 COVID-19 related cases on Wednesday, against 186,740 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths fell to 426 from 468.

Italy has registered 144,770 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 10.4 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with COVID-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 20,001 on Wednesday, down from 20,027 a day earlier.

There were 123 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 130 on Tuesday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 1,665 from a previous 1,694.

Some 1.1 million tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 1.4 million, the health ministry said. (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Sabina Suzzi)