Misleading: The Italian Ministry of Health has reduced its official COVID-19 death toll from over 130,000 to under 4,000.

The Italian ministry data had segregated the number of people with preexisting conditions dying of COVID and those without comorbidities.A claim circulating widely on social media states that the Italian National Institute of Health reduced the country's COVID-19 death toll from 130,000 to 4,000. However, this claim is misleading. The agency didn't reduce the country's death toll but released a detailed report on characteristics of COVID-19 patients who died due to COVID-19. An agency spokesperson told PolitiFact that the allegations were "completely wrong." According to the data on the Italian Health Ministry's dashboard, as of November 15, Italy reported 132,775 deaths and 4,860,061 total COVID-19 cases. The data shows that ‘4000 people' in question died because of COVID-19 as the sole cause. The remaining deaths were because of other conditions, including preexisting illnesses along with COVID-19. That analysis found that 2.9 percent of the deceased COVID-19 patients had no comorbidities, 11.4 percent had one, 18 percent had two, and 67.7 percent had three or more. The allegations stemmed from an article published in the Italian newspaper Tiempo on October 21, 2021. The article misinterpreted Italy's premier health institute's report and falsely said that individuals who die due to COVID-19 and have preexisting conditions might not be counted as COVID deaths by the Italian government. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.