Italy rules out new Covid-19 lockdown

Empty chairs and tables are lined up outside a restaurant in St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy, Monday, March 9, 2020. Italy took a page from China???s playbook Sunday, attempting to lock down 16 million people ??? more than a quarter of its population ??? for nearly a month to halt the relentless march of the new coronavirus across Europe. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte signed a quarantine decree early Sunday for the country???s prosperous north. Areas under lockdown include Milan, Italy???s financial hub and the main city in Lombardy, and Venice, the main city in the neighboring Veneto region. (Anteo Marinoni/LaPresse via AP)

After suffering one of Europe’s earliest and fiercest outbreaks, Italy emerged as an unlikely role model for its handling of the pandemic.

The country managed to reduce infections dramatically in June and July after two months of strict lockdown, while its fatality rate, once one of the world’s highest, fell to a handful per day.