In Italy’s coronavirus epicenter, life is on hold

LODI, Italy — In Lombardy’s quarantined towns, paranoia is spreading faster than any virus.

As of Sunday, 10 municipalities in the northern region’s Lodi province and another town in neighboring Veneto have been placed on lockdown after coronavirus cases in Italy surged from just a handful last week to more than 300 infected and 10 dead since the weekend.

The 11 towns, home to some 50,000 people, are closed off from the outside world. Police officers and the military are manning checkpoints at all access roads; nobody can enter or leave.

In this so-called red zone, life is on hold. But even in the yellow zone — the area around the quarantined towns where people are free to leave but have been advised to remain indoors — the streets are deserted and silent. All schools, restaurants, bars and most shops are shuttered; carnival parades were canceled, and churches have suspended Mass.

In my hometown of Lodi, a city of some 45,000 people that was designated a yellow zone, the anxiety is palpable. We’re not required to stay at home, but almost everyone does it. We’re not required to wear a face mask, but almost everyone does it. We aren’t required to keep a distance from others, but almost everyone does it.

As we watch out for the smallest sign of a possible symptom, we fill our days with work — at least those, like me, who are able to work from home — and we wait, the smokers among us counting cigarettes to have enough until the next time we can find an open tobacco shop.

We had been told that food supplies would not be a problem and that necessities would be provided, but nobody knows for sure. So this weekend, everyone went to stock up on the basics; now our cupboards overflow with pasta, rice, canned goods and flour.

In fact, even in the red zone, supermarkets are still open, but nobody knows for how long they will remain so. People there can enter the stores only in small groups — at most 40 people for a big store and three if it’s a small one — as a precautionary measure. (It’s anyone’s guess how effective that is, given that people still stand in line together for hours to get into the shops.) Pharmacies in the red zone are open too, but some have begun serving customers only through a small window.

Across the province, many are anxiously waiting for their test results or those of loved ones.

The fear wasn’t there from the beginning. At first, it all felt like a grand collective adventure. It also seemed rather unreal, as if we’d been dropped onto the set of „The Walking Dead.“

But soon, coronavirus cases multiplied and paranoia grew. All of us in the red and yellow zones know someone who has been put into isolation or who has been hospitalized, or someone who has been tested and is waiting for the result — but none of us know what to do about it.

The quarantined towns’ authorities are at a loss, too. „We were left alone,“ said Costantino Pesatori, the mayor of Castiglione d’Adda, one of the municipalities in the red zone. „Ministries and local authorities don’t let us know anything. They give us no answer. Really, we don’t know what to do. Since Friday there have been deaths, but no one has given us any instructions.“

Across the province, many are anxiously waiting for their test results or those of loved ones.

„My sister has a touch of fever, but we don’t know if it’s flu or COVID-19. They have tested her and she is waiting for the result,“ said Silvia, a young woman from Casalpusterlengo, another town in the red zone. As a precaution, her sister and her sister’s husband have stopped sharing the same room.

But not everyone is letting the paranoia get to them. One 25-year-old man, Dario, joked that given that he had to study for college exams anyway, the quarantine wasn’t „that bad.“

And others are less afraid of the coronavirus than of what unintended consequences an extended lockdown might have. In Castiglione d’Adda, a truck driver from Romania says he’s been passing the time playing PlayStation — and worrying if he’ll still have a job once the quarantine is lifted.

„I don’t know how long my boss will let me stay at home,“ he said. „If I don’t drive, he will find someone else … I hope this will end soon.“

So far, however, no one knows how long the quarantine will last. In Lodi, meanwhile, locals look out on the surrounding towns with trepidation, wondering if the red zone will grow to swallow their city, too.

This article is part of POLITICO’s premium policy service: Pro Health Care. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharma and more, our specialized journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the health care policy agenda. Email pro@politico.eu for a complimentary trial.

Source: politico.com
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