Codogno has declared itself 'covid-free' for the first time since 20 February 2020, when the small town in the northern Italian region of Lombardy became the epicentre of Italy's coronavirus outbreak. The news, based on the daily update from local health agency ATS, was announced last night by Codogno mayor Francesco Passerini who described it as a "dream we have been waiting for for almost 16 months."

"It has never happened since 20 February last year" - said Passerini - "We had been monitoring the situation for several days, waiting to reach this milestone which is a further step towards normality that we miss a lot." Codogno made international news on 21 February 2020 when its hospital announced the first official case of covid-19 in Europe with the emergency hospitalisation of 'Patient 1' Mattia Maestri.