Health authorities in Vò, a small town in northern Italy, appear to have stemmed the spread of coronavirus through aggressive testing, according to Financial Times.

All 3,300 inhabitants of the town near Venice were tested and retested for coronavirus whether or not they exhibited symptoms. Once infection was confirmed, rigorous quarantining was implemented.

"In the U.K., there are a whole lot of infections that are completely ignored," Professor Andrea Crisanti, an infections expert at Imperial College London, told the Financial Times.

"We were able to contain the outbreak here because we identified and eliminated the 'submerged' infections and isolated them," he said of the Vò approach. "That is what makes the difference."

Crisanti is taking part in the Vò project while on sabbatical at the University of Pandua.

The approach to test everyone has been strongly endorsed by the World Health Organization.

"Our key message is: test, test, test," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.

Vò carried out the first round of testing in late February. The second testing round took place 10 days later. Eight individuals had the virus but no symptoms.

"If they hadn't been identified, the infection would have resumed," Crisanti told FT.

A medical device company in the U.S. has received FDA approval and is set to produce a million tests a week.

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