Italian mayor fights lone battle for mass virus blood testing

The mayor of a pandemic-hit Italian town is trying to get everyone's blood tested in a controversial attempt to end weeks of confinement and finally get people back to work.

Most Italian authorities wish he would stop.

The story of Robbio mayor Roberto Francese has generated a fair bit of interest in a Mediterranean country where people's primary mission is to not catch COVID-19.

The nation of 60 million has effectively shut down for business to stop the spread of a virus that has officially killed 15,362 people and quite possibly many more.

No one is sure how the old way of life can resume without setting off a second pandemic wave.

Into this debate stepped Francese -- a self-confident mayor of a town of 6,000 in Italy's northwest that primarily grows rice.

"We can never improve the situation without separating the healthy from the sick," Francese told AFP.

"That is what the blood test is for."