Italy's epidemic should stabilise soon, but vigilance needed

Lockdowns and stringent measures in place in Italy for the past two weeks should lead soon to a stabilisation in its coronavirus epidemic, but vigilant follow-up will be required, a senior official of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. "We do hope that Italy and Spain are nearly there, but the virus won't go down by itself, it needs to be pushed down through public health efforts,' Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, told a news conference.

On Italy, Ryan said: "We should start to see stabilisation. The cases we see today really reflect exposures 2 weeks ago."