Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo spoke on the phone Thursday according to a foreign ministry statement. The phone talks came as Italy's death-toll from the coronavirus outbreak reached 3,405 - more than China's.
Both the number of deaths from Covid-19 and the total confirmed cases shot up again in Italy, which has now recorded 41,035 infections - more than half of the world's positive cases.
China on Thursday counted 3,249 deaths from Covid-19, 156 fewer than Italy, according to the Johns Hopkins University virus map.
Two-thirds of Italy's Covid-19 deaths have been in the north, where on Wednesday a US-funded 68-bed field hospital was set up in the city of Cremona in the Lombardy region.
The epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, Lombardy's health care system is at the point of collapse.
The latest figures come amid an unprecedented national lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19, which first reported late last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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