#Coronavirus: Italy says 1,000 have died but lockdown can work

Coronavirus has claimed 1,016 lives in Italy, officials say, but Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio says he hopes his country will be the first in Europe to get over the emergency.Another 188 people died over 24 hours.However, Mr Di Maio told the BBC the measures imposed in the first area of the outbreak were proving effective.Two weeks after the first 10 towns in northern Italy were declared a "red zone" and put under lockdown, he said they had no new infections.This then served as a model to tighten measures across the country.Italy has now seen 1,016 deaths, amid a total number 15,113 infections. Civil protection officials say 1,258 have recovered, although the number of cases has gone up by 2,651 since Wednesday. Italy is the world's worst-hit country after China.