I’m from Italy, I live in a small village in the north, precisely in Lombardy, the most affected region. As of now, Italy is in a complete lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are used to the concept of quarantine when it comes down to a small group of individuals that are kept isolated in specific structures to contain a virus. This is something unprecedented, a whole country is quarantined. What do you do when this extreme measure is applied to a whole country?
Well, it’s basically like living under the virus autocracy: your freedom is restricted, you have to justify yourself by a filled-in form where you declare under your responsibility where you’re going (if you lie or you are not respecting the directives, it’s a criminal act and you get sued).
Actually, we can only leave our homes for three reasons:
- to go to work (almost everything is locked down, but there are categories of people who are still working like grocery shops’ staff, riders, couriers, workers and medical staff and paramedics — we see you, we are sorry and thank you to all of you).
- to go grocery shopping (this is also regulated, you can only enter in small groups and you have to wait outside for your turn to come and you have to respect the 1-meter distance rule. Only one person per family can go out shopping and you have to do it in your own town, you can’t go to the nearest town - it’s allowed only if you live in a place where there’s not even one small shop).
- to go buy medicines (the same rules are applied, you have to wait for your turn to come and respect the 1-meter distance rule).
Smart Working was basically non-existing here in Italy, but as of now a lot of people are trying to work from home. Imagine what this means for a country who’s not used to this, it’s a struggle. Classes are also in e-learning and professors are going crazy cause the connection is not the best in our country and a lot of families do not have computers enough for all their kids and they are spending a lot of money to print all the materials at home).
If you have someone at the hospital or in a retirement home, you can’t visit them. If you live in the same town as your parents, you can’t visit them, only if they are in real danger and in case of emergency.
Our healthcare system is in total overload, in Lombardy the ICU is saturated and they are starting to move people in other regions very far from home and the triage rule (saving the person with a longer life expectancy) might be applied very soon, if not already applied.
The virus is spreading in the south of Italy where the healthcare system is, unfortunately, worse than here and I’m really worried. A lot of doctors, nurses and paramedics are getting sick cause they are being overexposed to the virus.
To put everything in perspective: the local newspaper “Eco of Bergamo” (Bergamo is a city in the north of Italy, in Lombardy) usually reports deaths in one page. As of yesterday, all the deaths occupied 10 pages.
If your loved one die in a hospital, they die alone and funerals are suspended.
I’m no psychologist or psychiatrist, but we are all undergoing some sort of collective trauma, please take care of your mental health as well. Do not isolate yourself virtually: call your parents, friends or whoever makes you feel safe. Stay away from social networks and news cause here in Italy, now that the situation is out of control, you can’t escape the thing and it’s mentally exhausting.
I’m at home with my family and we are all experiencing different types of feelings: from anger to sadness, from anxiety to powerlessness . It’s normal, validate how you feel and ask for help if you are overwhelmed.
If you live in a country where the virus is starting to spread and your government is not doing anything to protect you, raise your voice cause this thing is no jokes. The virus itself is not the problem, the real problem is how freaking fast it spreads causing congestion in the healthcare system and its subsequent collapse: too many sick people at the same time, even the best system can’t take it.
Stay safe, stay at home the more you can, use face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
We can do this!
ellievsbear
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
vaporwave
titsay
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