From zero to hero: Italy's Chinese help beat coronavirus

A handout photo, according to the source taken in February, shows a businessman Luca Zhou, 56, wearing a face mask on the streets of Prato, home to the biggest ethnic Chinese community in Italy. Maurizio Ciampolini/Handout via REUTERS

FLORENCE (Reuters) - In the storm of infection and death sweeping Italy, one big community stands out to health officials as remarkably unscathed -- the 50,000 ethnic Chinese who live in the town of Prato.

Two months ago, the country's Chinese residents were the target of what Amnesty International described as shameful discrimination, the butt of insults and violent attack by people who feared they would spread the coronavirus through Italy.