The Financial Times newspaper has published an article praising Italy (and the Italian's) response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The article acknowledges both the management of the Conte government and the disciplined behavior of Italians, and holds up three main factors as the pillars that have supported Italy. Firstly, the fact that Italy was the earliest country in Europe to face the emergency and thus both the health system and the government have had more time to plan the post-lockdown phase - in which the easing of restrictive measures was more gradual and controlled than in other countries. Secondly, the compliance of the Italian population with the strict controls imposed to combat the virus. Finally, Italy's testing and monitoring system, which has been highly effiective in identifying & containing any subsequent localised outbreaks.
You can read an extract from the article below.
Extract from an article in The Financial Times, Wednesday 23 September, 2020. By Miles Johnson and Davide Ghiglione in Rome, John Burn-Murdoch in London
Read the full original article here.
When Covid-19 struck Europe, Lombardy’s flooded hospitals and spiralling death toll provided a grim template for Italy’s neighbours. In the past weeks, however, it is offering a more upbeat, alternative path: while Spain, France and the UK are experiencing a second surge in infections after loosening lockdown restrictions, Italy has kept the disease under control. New daily cases are on the rise to 1,535 from the low hundreds in June, when restrictions started easing. But this compares with more than 10,000 new cases in Spain and France. Life feels normal in most of Italy: restaurants and bars are open, people enjoy late-summer trips to the beach and children have returned to school.
First-mover advantage
For Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan, “Italy is in a better situation than other countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain or France because we were among the first in the world to face the Covid hurricane.” Its health system and government have had more time to plan its post-lockdown response and the lifting of restrictions has been more gradual, allowing the government greater agility in reintroducing restrictions when needed. Prime minister Giuseppe Conte has kept on reminding Italians to remain vigilant. Under Italy’s Covid-19 state of emergency he has the power to rule by decree, meaning his government was able to react swiftly to an uptick in new cases over the summer. By contrast, Spain’s state of alert, which granted the central government emergency powers over the regions, lapsed on June 21. In August, Rome ordered a closure of discos and introduced a rule that face masks must be worn in all crowded places between 6pm and 6am. The measures, which were initially in place for a month, were extended for a further 30 days in early September. Companies have been encouraged to extend remote working arrangements into the autumn with the government guaranteeing staff workplace insurance in their homes. Those that have reopened have strict protocols — including the wearing of face mask all day, daily body temperature scans, social distancing and free Covid-19 swabs.
“Italians are more respectful of the measures of social distancing and against the transmission of the virus, even in the smallest commercial activity all measures are observed very scrupulously,” said Andrea Crisanti, a professor of microbiology at the university of Padua.
Individual behaviour, although hard to quantify, has played an important role, said Ferdinando Luca Lorini, director of intensive care at a hospital in Bergamo. “We have gone from the most affected country to one of the virtuous countries in the management of the pandemic thanks to the clarity of the rules from the very beginning, and the willingness of everyone to respect them,” he said.