That's not how the math works though. Italy is reducing the number of sick people from 1000 to 100, to use your numbers. The way the virus spread those 100 will be 250 in 5 days, 500 in 10 days, and back to the original 1,000 in 15 days.

Reducing the number of infections is only half the battle. The other half is keeping transmissions contained for several months to years.