EU nations move toward loosening restrictions

Epicenter declaration

In Europe as a whole, more than 1 million confirmed cases and 100,000 deaths from the virus had been reported by Sunday.

On Jan 30, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern－its highest-level alert－one day before Italy reported its first two confirmed cases.

By Feb 21, a cluster of cases had been confirmed in Lombardy in the northwest of the country. The number of cases then grew exponentially. By the time Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree on March 8, enforcing quarantine in Lombardy and several other provinces, Italy had 5,883 confirmed cases and 234 deaths. The following day, the lockdown was extended nationwide.

By Saturday, the number of confirmed cases in the country had exceeded 172,000, with 22,000 deaths, the highest mortality figure among EU member states.

Universal health coverage is provided in Italy, but nearly 23 percent of the population is older than 65, trailing only Japan. According to a National Institute of Health report quoted by Al Jazeera late last month, more than 85 percent of those who have died from COVID-19 were older than 70, and 48 percent of the deceased had an average of three pre-existing illnesses.

Close family connections have also been viewed as a reason for the virus spreading in Italy, with the elderly interacting much more with their children and grandchildren compared with their counterparts in other countries.

On March 13, the WHO declared Europe the epicenter of COVID-19 after Spain and several other countries reported fast-growing numbers of cases and deaths. Two days earlier, the WHO had declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Spain, which reported its first confirmed infection on Jan 31, had registered cases in all its 50 provinces by March 13, one day before a national lockdown was imposed.

The country has reported more confirmed cases than Italy, but the death toll in the country from the virus is still lower than its European counterpart's.

When the WHO announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Jan 30, most EU countries did not take it seriously. A Harvard Business Review article published on March 27, titled "Lessons from Italy's Response to Coronavirus", said, "The initial state-of-emergency declarations were met by skepticism by both the public and many in policy circles－even though several scientists had been warning of the potential for a catastrophe for weeks."

The lack of a coordinated approach nationwide has been cited as one cause of the virus spreading when many people fled to southern Italy after the lockdown was imposed in the north of the country on March 8.