WHEN Italy last week became the first country other than China to have more than 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus, it faced its biggest crisis since World War II.

While tackling the human cost of this health emergency is the first and foremost priority, the economic damage will also be massive with the country already likely in its fourth recession in around a decade.

The nation has already taken the most restrictive mobility measures in Europe since the 1940s with Italians in effective lockdown conditions. Not only are people forbidden - in theory - from moving across the country, shops (with the exception of supermarkets, food stores and chemists) are shut, while firms must close all their departments that are not essential to production.