ROME, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Italy's coronavirus infection rate has started to climb over the last week for the first time since December, as the head of the country's coronavirus task force was sacked and other health experts called for greater diligence from the public in order to slow the spread of the virus.

The news from some corners of the country was positive. The island region of Sardinia, for example, was on Sunday declared the country's first "white" zone, a new low-restriction category on the country's yellow-orange-red scale indicating the strictness of health rules related to the pandemic. Another region, Valle d'Aosta, is reported to be near the same status.

But overall, Italy's infection rate is trending in the wrong direction. The total number of infections reported by the Ministry of Health for Monday was 13,114, down from more than 17,000 a day earlier. But the rate topped the 17,000-infection benchmark in each of the previous four days, a rate previously not seen since Jan. 14.

With 10,894 patients declared cured on Monday of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the day marked the ninth time in ten days that new cases outnumbered the number of cured individuals -- something that before Feb. 20 had happened just three times since late November.

As such, the total number of active cases nationally climbed to 424,333, still well below its all-time peak of more than 800,000 from Nov. 22, but representing the first sustained climb for that indicator in more than three months.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive-care units also inched higher, totaling 2,289 on Monday, an increase of 58 compared to Sunday and higher than 2,045 ten days earlier.

Still, the mortality rate remained low by recent standards, with 246 new deaths reported for the 24-hour period ending Monday, higher than the 192 deaths recorded for Sunday but in line with recent totals. The one-day death figure has still not topped 500 since Jan. 26.

The development comes as Mario Draghi, who was installed as Italy's prime minister on Feb. 13, removed Domenico Arcuri as the country's special commissioner for the pandemic. Draghi nominated Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, an Army general, to take the job. Figliuolo is expected to appear at his first coronavirus briefing in his new role on Friday.

In the meantime, Minister of Health Roberto Speranza issued a warning about the country's rising infection rate, stating "the contagion curve is rising significantly again and we need to fight hard."

The ministry said that new highly-contagious versions of the virus were among the factors behind the rising number of infections.

The Italian government is mulling a new reshuffling of the regional categories for health restrictions, with the new categorizations expected as soon as Tuesday.

Lazio, the region that includes Rome, is in the "yellow" category, the second-lowest level. But there is speculation it could switch to "orange," which would mean tighter restrictions. Alessio D'Amato, the region's public health chief, on Monday warned that if that happens public schools across the region could close their doors, sending more than 800,000 students home and putting classes back online.

Italy's vaccine rollout continues to be plagued by problems. The country was the first in the European Union to distribute at least one vaccine dose to at least 1 percent of its population in mid-January. But since then, delivery shortfalls and distribution problems have taken their toll.

The Adnkronos news agency, using data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, reported Monday that Italy has now fallen to 25th place among 27 European Union states in terms of distribution rate for the first vaccine dose, covering about 4.2 percent of the adult population.

Seen as the most powerful weapon against the pandemic, vaccination campaigns with authorized COVID-19 vaccines are ongoing in Italy and many other countries around the world.

Meanwhile, 256 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 74 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 26.