Premier Giuseppe Conte said Italy gave a "great demonstration" of its worth during the coronavirus emergency as he thanked doctors and nursers form the nation's health task forces on Monday.
"We were all forced to face an extremely difficult, demanding and unexpected challenge," he continued.
"We would never have imagined having to take the decisions that we took - first to set up a (sealed-off) red zone for some towns and then (a lockdown) throughout the nation".
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