The United Nations World Health Organisation on Friday paid tribute to Italy for its response the dramatic COVID-19 epidemic earlier this year, which included a strict lockdown that lasted months.
"Italy was the first Western country to be heavily affected by #COVID-19," read a WHO tweet with video charting Italy's experience of the virus which has killed almost 36,000 people: the sixth highest death-toll of any country in the world.
"The government & community, across all levels, reacted strongly & turned around the trajectory of the epidemic with a series of science-based measures," the tweet added.
Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte retweeted WHO's tweet and video with the caption: "The WHO pays homage to Italy."
A million people have been killed by the COVID-19 pandemic and over 32,284,000 people have been infected since the disease was first reported in China late last year, according to Johns Hopkins University.
