Italy will pull through its dramatic coronavirus outbreak - the world's deadliest - and is showing other countries a lead with the measures it is putting in place, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Monday.
"From aboard, they are looking at us with respect as they see how we are tackling this emergency. We are rolling out measures to protect every single Italian citizen," Di Maio wrote on Facebook.
"We can recover from this illness and show the world that we are a great people that knew how to fight and to pick ourselves up again," the post added.
Italy on Tuesday recorded a lower day-to-day increase of coronavirus cases for the second day running on Monday, officials said.
Italy’s Civil Protection agency recorded 4,789 new coronavirus cases Monday, 700 less than the 5,560 new cases reported Sunday, while the day-to-day death count also fell to just over 600 deaths from 651 on Sunday. More than 6,000 people have died in Italy from Covid-19 and nearly 64,000 people are infected.
Officials warn that is too soon to know if the worst is now behind the country, which has become the global Covid-19 epicentre, leaving hospitals at the point collapse as Italians live under a drastic lockdown.
The lockdown now extends to factories producing non-essential goods and services, which are closed until at least 3 April, further fuelling fears that Covid-19 will push the country into its fourth recession since 2008.
