"Why have other European countries' reactions been so slow when they already had the Italian example?"
ADVERTISEMENTItaly is the epicentre of Europe's coronavirus outbreak. The World Health Organization says Italy is entering uncharted territory and it may have a lot to teach both the organisation and the rest of the world.
More than a thousand people have died from COVID-19 in the country and 15-thousand have been infected.
On Wednesday Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte added new restrictions to the lockdown imposed to fight the new coronavirus after figures showed Italy posting the highest daily increase in deaths of any country since the outbreak began.
The prime minister also said Italy has proven to be a great example to the rest of the world with its response to the global pandemic.
Italy's former Prime Minister, Mario Monti, spoke to Euronews about his nation's struggle with the novel coronavirus. Monti, who held the office from 2011-2013, said he hadn't seen anything like it in his lifetime.
"For some reason that will have to be explained one day, we have been hit by the virus coming from China considerably before other western countries, and from that moment the reaction from the public authorities has been unusually vigorous for Italy and unusually accepted and complied with by the Italian population."
"We wonder why - looking at other European countries - why the reaction is being considerably slower because they had the Italian example at hand for a few weeks already?"
"When I see some declarations by some heads of government of other western European countries or the United States I'm amazed by the combination of slowness and wrong tonalities," said Monti.
WATCH the full interview below: