Italian Representative to Taiwan Davide Giglio said he hopes his country would be the first to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic after it became the first European country to be hit by the virus.
“Having been hit the first in Europe, Italy now hopes to be among the first, if not outright the first, to ride this storm out,” Giglio told the Central News Agency in an interview.
“The COVID-19 epidemic has been raging in northern Italy, particularly in Lombardy, which is the economic heart of the country,” he said. “It is a region with strong business interactions worldwide, hence the reason the contagion appeared there first.”
According to the latest WHO figures, Italy has 47,021 confirmed cases, the highest in Europe and the second-highest globally after China. It also has the highest number of deaths worldwide at 4,032.
The entire country entered lockdown on March 9, two weeks after Lombardy became the first administrative region to be sealed off.
Despite the dire news, Giglio believes the situation is improving.
“Remarkable progress has been made there [Lombardy] in containing [the disease] thanks to unprecedented measures taken by the Italian government, which has put the country into a lockdown,” Giglio said.
The people of Italy “have shown amazing cohesiveness, discipline, empathy, in some case even good humor when dealing with the limitations to their traditional way of life that have been imposed by the authorities,” he said.
“Italy has become a model, as the same measures taken there have been later adopted also by other important European countries,” he added.
“We are a uniquely resilient nation. I am confident that Italy will overcome even this challenge.”
He rejected the perception in the local Chinese-language media that Italy has become a “vector” of contagion, saying that his country is a victim.
“Characterizing Italy and the Italians as vectors of the contagion is untrue and insensitive. This emergency is not of Italy’s making,” he said. “COVID-19 landed at Italy’s doorstep as it has at Taiwan’s and both sides have been doing their best to deal with the situation.”
Another misconception is skepticism over the safety of Italian products, which cannot serve as a possible vehicle of contagion, he said.
While acknowledging that people-to-people interactions in Italy and Taiwan have been affected by the outbreak since January, Giglio said that “it is unreasonable to make unnecessary obstacles to the displacement of goods and to the regular development of bilateral trade.”
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