Italy designates 18 March as national day to remember its coronavirus victims.

Italy's parliament has designated 18 March as National Day in Memory of covid-19 victims, with the unanimous approval of the decision marked by a minute's silence in the chamber on 23 July.

The date for the annual commemoration was not chosen randomly: it was the day that Italy - and the world - woke up to images of a convoy of military trucks full of coffins driving out of Bergamo whose cemetery and crematorium could no longer cope with the amount of casualties.

• Covid-19: Army trucks take coffins out of Bergamo

"It will be an important day to not forget such a dramatic time and to remember all the people who are no longer with us," Italy's health minister Roberto Speranza wrote on Facebook.

• Italy: Bergamo hospital intensive care unit is covid-19 free

10 coronavirus patients died in Italy in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 35,092, according to the daily figures released by the ministry of health on 23 July.

The total number of cases in Italy has reached 245,338, an increase of 306 from the day before, reports the health ministry.