ITALY TOPS COVID-19 DEATHS

COVID-19 deaths in Italy have surpassed China's. 

The death toll reached at least 3,405, officials announced on Thursday.

According to a Johns Hopkins University database updated several times daily, Italy now reports at least 156 more deaths than in China.

China's a population more than 23 times larger than Italy's.

OFFICIALS CONCERNED FOR WELLBEING OF YOUNG PEOPLE

A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 20% of the people hospitalized from COVID-19 were aged 20 to 44-years-old.

Although the virus is known to be more dangerous for older people, U.S. officials are advising younger people to be cautious about the pandemic.

"There are concerning reports coming out of France and Italy about some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the ICUs," said Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, in a White House briefing. 

CHINA REPORTS NO NEW LOCAL INFECTIONS

On Thursday, a major milestone - zero domestically-transmitted COVID-19 infections. Chinese public health officials said all the new cases were among travelers who entered China from somewhere else.

NO NEW INFECTIONS IN WUHAN

This follows another landmark. On March 18, Wuhan, China - the epicenter of the initial COVID-19 outbreak - reported no new infections at all. Since December, the pathogen had burned through the city's population, and beyond, with a ferocity that few had witnessed anywhere before. In just over three and-a-half months, Chinese health officials got the Wuhan outbreak under control.

This success extends well beyond the city. Wuhan, a city of more than 11 million people, is the capital of Hubei Province in Central China. Across a province that still under mass lockdown, there were no new cases.