Italian doctors remember night that ushered in Europe's first COVID-19 lockdown

FILE PHOTO: Laura Ricevuti, the medical doctor who diagnosed the first case of COVID-19 in an Italian patient with Dr. Malara on February 20, looks through the window at Codogno Hospital one year after the small northern town became Europe's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epicentre, in Codogno, Italy, February 11, 2021. Picture taken February 11, 2021. REUTERS/Flavio Lo Scalzo

CODOGNO, Italy (Reuters) - A year ago, Laura Ricevuti and Annalisa Malara, both doctors at Codogno hospital in Italy, had a hunch that something was different about a patient in the intensive care ward.

Their decision to take matters into their own hands wound up triggering a national emergency - they had identified the first case of COVID-19 in the area that would become Europe's first lockdown zone.