In the Red Zone: Day 1
The 9th of March dawned grey and gloomy. Waking up weighed on us. Our imprisonment had begun. However, considering the alarming increase in the deaths yesterday, the measures seemed prudent. How did we come to this? Our morning routine consisted of allaying the fears of our loved ones with a dishonest optimism. For the first time since the epidemic struck these shores, I wasn't so sure we were okay. We'd begun drawing up a list of dishes we could make with our apocalypse shopping. It was an exercise in conjuring hope out of the circumstance. It helps that we both like cooking so the act of making banana pancakes was morning therapy.
The day of smart working drew on frustratingly by with exhausted Spotify playlists on repeat. Working is not the same when you're home on your computer even if regular work involves sitting at the computer all day. With everyone housebound, this is a national exercise in working and studying remotely and everyone has to come up with new strategies for it. Still, there are a lot of task that need physical presence. I'd heard from acquaintances over the weekend how distance education was a challenge for school students many of whom did not have the appropriate infrastructure, how some offices are having to cut back on services provided because the only people capable of providing them lived in a city in lock-down.
By evening, our source of daily statistics (The numbers are based on information collated from news sources and government data) had updated the Italy statistics and the number of cases had jumped again. It was dreadful to see Italy, a small country, having the second most cases after China. New articles seemed to echo my thoughts on Italy's large elderly population (the second largest after Japan at 22.4% of the population) being especially vulnerable. In fact the chief of the Lombardy regional crisis response unit was quoted saying “One of the best health systems in the world, in Lombardy is a step away from collapse.” The very health system that has been a model in improving longevity among so many of its citizens.
Later in the evening, my girlfriend began to sniffle and I feared the virus had come home. Temperature checks then and through next day finally put my mind at ease. It is hard to escape the paranoia. In the meantime, the panic over the travel ban had made many try to get out of the red zones and go back to their home towns. The government subsequently deemed quarantining Lombardy and 14 provinces inadequate. All of Italy was to be put into a state of lock down with restrictions travel, suspension of educational activities and for that matter any activity that involved people gathering.
The day of smart working drew on frustratingly by with exhausted Spotify playlists on repeat. Working is not the same when you're home on your computer even if regular work involves sitting at the computer all day. With everyone housebound, this is a national exercise in working and studying remotely and everyone has to come up with new strategies for it. Still, there are a lot of task that need physical presence. I'd heard from acquaintances over the weekend how distance education was a challenge for school students many of whom did not have the appropriate infrastructure, how some offices are having to cut back on services provided because the only people capable of providing them lived in a city in lock-down.
By evening, our source of daily statistics (The numbers are based on information collated from news sources and government data) had updated the Italy statistics and the number of cases had jumped again. It was dreadful to see Italy, a small country, having the second most cases after China. New articles seemed to echo my thoughts on Italy's large elderly population (the second largest after Japan at 22.4% of the population) being especially vulnerable. In fact the chief of the Lombardy regional crisis response unit was quoted saying “One of the best health systems in the world, in Lombardy is a step away from collapse.” The very health system that has been a model in improving longevity among so many of its citizens.
Later in the evening, my girlfriend began to sniffle and I feared the virus had come home. Temperature checks then and through next day finally put my mind at ease. It is hard to escape the paranoia. In the meantime, the panic over the travel ban had made many try to get out of the red zones and go back to their home towns. The government subsequently deemed quarantining Lombardy and 14 provinces inadequate. All of Italy was to be put into a state of lock down with restrictions travel, suspension of educational activities and for that matter any activity that involved people gathering.
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