The Lessons from Italy’s Covid-19 Mistakes
Italy was unlucky in being hit hardest first in Europe. Its neighbors, and the U.S., should have learned from its missteps.
In Milan, members of the military check commuters' travel authorization forms.
Photographer: Camilla Cerea/BloombergItaly is doubling down on its lockdown strategy to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, halting all non-essential economic activities for two weeks. There are early signs that these draconian steps are paying off, but the human and economic costs will be steep.
The government made mistakes, ones that the rest of the Western world should have learned from but didn’t. Italy has surpassed China as the country with the most deaths from Covid-19, according to the official data. Nearly 5,500 Italians have lost their lives to the disease, compared with less than 3,300 Chinese — even though Italy’s population is barely 4% that of China’s. Almost 60,000 individuals have tested positive for the virus, more than double the number in Spain and Germany.