The WHO Rapid Response Team (RRT) was deployed to Italy, the world’s worst affected country, for 12 days in early March, just as infection and casualty numbers were starting to climb dramatically. WHO has made Italy a priority, and members of the RRT worked closely with national and regional authorities, visiting hospitals, briefing health workers, and developing detailed technical plans to manage the outbreak. The plans emphasize the importance of containment measures across the country - and Italy responded with some of the toughest restrictions on movement - and prioritizing the identification and testing of suspect cases. WHO will now deploy a senior advisor to Rome and establish a field emergency team in the WHO Venice Office. “We are ready to scale up our involvement as needed,” concluded Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.
