In the Red Zone: Day Zero
The clocks had just flipped past midnight and we were sitting around the table having just finished a game of Risk. A small dinner party with friends, we thought, was acceptable under the circumstances. A little over two weeks into the outbreak of the Covid-19 in Italy, most of our workplaces had decided it was safer if we worked from home. 'Smart working' is what most offices called it, and we jested about it as we were being wiped off the face of the Risiko (the Italian name for Risk) map.
My work visit to Milan from Venice had been extended by a week already because work had been postponed by the shutdown. I wasn't complaining considering it meant more time with my girlfriend and friends. At first I was pretty calm about the epidemic, resigned to the fact that there wasn't much I could do about it apart from avoiding crowded places and washing my hands regularly. Being young and having a 0.2% chance of falling victim to the virus was reassuring too. "Even if I caught it, it's unlikely I'd die of it" was the rationale. Still, the fact it was spreading all over the world made us check updates daily. And the news that had alarmed our families to call us and ask after us daily was beginning to affect me as well. At some point the numbers in Italy had just grown too large and in the night of the 7th of march we heard news of the decree that would declare the entire region of Lombardy (and some other northern Italian provinces) a red zone.
There had already been a few towns that had been cordoned off. The trains passed through the stations without stopping and it was a punishable offence to try to enter or exit these towns without good reason. And although these towns were less than a hundred kilometres south of Milan they might as well have been in the Hubei province to me in my bubble of blissful ignorance. With the larger red zones coming into effect, things came into sharp focus. We wound up our dinner party and everyone departed a little more on edge, worrying about what the next month will be like and whether a month will be enough. For me, it was clear I wasn't going back to Venice anytime soon and my small backpack that I'd brought for what was supposed to be a 4 day trip would now have to be augmented for the month long blockade.
The morning of the 8th was charged. We'd decided to stock up on provisions and headed off to the supermarket to make the single most expensive supermarket trip in my life. Hand sanitiser had been out of stock for a week now. It really felt like we were preparing for bad times. Then, throwing caution to the wind (perhaps not the best choice of idiom) we headed off for a much needed Sunday lunch at our friends house where Pav Bhaji, Apple pie and conversation really helped calm us all down a little. We headed home full, tired and a little less worried. I wondered if the next 25 days of the official quarantine were going to be like this. Probably not.
My work visit to Milan from Venice had been extended by a week already because work had been postponed by the shutdown. I wasn't complaining considering it meant more time with my girlfriend and friends. At first I was pretty calm about the epidemic, resigned to the fact that there wasn't much I could do about it apart from avoiding crowded places and washing my hands regularly. Being young and having a 0.2% chance of falling victim to the virus was reassuring too. "Even if I caught it, it's unlikely I'd die of it" was the rationale. Still, the fact it was spreading all over the world made us check updates daily. And the news that had alarmed our families to call us and ask after us daily was beginning to affect me as well. At some point the numbers in Italy had just grown too large and in the night of the 7th of march we heard news of the decree that would declare the entire region of Lombardy (and some other northern Italian provinces) a red zone.
There had already been a few towns that had been cordoned off. The trains passed through the stations without stopping and it was a punishable offence to try to enter or exit these towns without good reason. And although these towns were less than a hundred kilometres south of Milan they might as well have been in the Hubei province to me in my bubble of blissful ignorance. With the larger red zones coming into effect, things came into sharp focus. We wound up our dinner party and everyone departed a little more on edge, worrying about what the next month will be like and whether a month will be enough. For me, it was clear I wasn't going back to Venice anytime soon and my small backpack that I'd brought for what was supposed to be a 4 day trip would now have to be augmented for the month long blockade.
The morning of the 8th was charged. We'd decided to stock up on provisions and headed off to the supermarket to make the single most expensive supermarket trip in my life. Hand sanitiser had been out of stock for a week now. It really felt like we were preparing for bad times. Then, throwing caution to the wind (perhaps not the best choice of idiom) we headed off for a much needed Sunday lunch at our friends house where Pav Bhaji, Apple pie and conversation really helped calm us all down a little. We headed home full, tired and a little less worried. I wondered if the next 25 days of the official quarantine were going to be like this. Probably not.
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