Italy reported a sharp rise in its coronavirus death toll Tuesday, with 743 more victims, breaking a two-day trend that had fuelled hopes the epidemic may be on the wane. The daily toll was the second highest recorded in Italy since the crisis began, ut the civil protection agency said that while the number of new cases was up on Monday’s figure, the infection rate was slowing. The civil protection chief also said the nation of 60 million was on course to overtake China’s total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in a week.