The death toll from the outbreak of coronavirus in Italy rose by 427 to 3,405 in the last 24 hours, meaning the country's death toll has passed that of China, where 3,253 people have died as of Thursday.

This is the faster growth rate the country has seen in the last three days, the Italian Civil Protection Agency said. 

As cases ratcheted up, Italy imposed nationwide restrictions, placing more than 60 million people under lockdown on March 10. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte shut down schools, theaters, and public spaces; restricted domestic movement; imposed a 6 p.m. curfew; and has only permitted grocery stores and pharmacies to remain open.

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The quarantine was supposed to end on April 3, but it's reported that the lockdown will be prolonged, and the new end date is unknown.

Meanwhile, Italy's healthcare system has been pushed to the brink amid the outbreak, especially in the country's north, where the system is collapsing under the strain of an unending stream of patients, insufficient beds, and lack of medical resources.

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People are being treated in field hospitals and lined up in corridors inside its straining public hospitals. Doctors and nurses are being infected, due to a lack of adequate protection.

Officials are being forced to use Italian army trucks to transport coffins from the worst-hit northern city of Bergamo to remote cremation sites because local morgues can't deal with the skyrocketing coronavirus death toll.

Chinese medical experts who arrived Italy last week to help the country deal with the coronavirus said Thursday that the situation in the hard-hit Lombardy region "is similar to what we experienced two months ago in Wuhan, the epicenter of COVID-19 in China."

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Sun Shuopeng, vice-president of the Chinese Red Cross advised Italians to stop all "economic activities and cut the mobility of people," and stay at home to curb the spread of the virus.

"We need every citizen to be involved in the fight of COVID-19 and follow this policy," Sun said.

(With input from agencies)