Italy has treasured the "hard lesson" of the coronavirus epidemic, which struck in February, managing to manage the new emergency better than other European countries and "keeping the epidemic under control".
The Financial Times notes this, making a comparison with the situation in Spain, France and the United Kingdom, in serious difficulty.
The FT cites some experts who list the reasons for the good Italian response to the second wave.
For Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist of the University of Milan, "Italy is in a better situation than other countries because we were among the first in the world to face the Covid hurricane".
Its health care system and government have had more time to plan for its post-lockdown response, and the lifting of restrictions has been more gradual, allowing the government more agility to reintroduce restrictions when needed.
Furthermore, in Italy there was "a high degree of acceptance of the population to restrictions, such as the mandatory mask in shops and transport".
And "companies have been encouraged to extend smart-working to autumn".
"We have gone from the most affected country to one of the virtuous countries in the management of the pandemic thanks to the clarity of the rules from the beginning and the willingness of everyone to respect them," said Ferdinando Luca Lorini, director of intensive care at a hospital in Bergamo.
Andrea Crisanti, professor of microbiology at the University of Padua, also emphasized the quality of tests and tracing: "The public health response has focused not only on mass testing, but also on effective surveillance for trace anyone who came into contact with an infected person ".