Julio Algañaraz
02/24/2020 - 15:20
- Clarín.com
- World
The dead are already seven and the infected 229 . Of those, 101 are hospitalized (27 in intensive care), while the other 94 are in their homes, isolated with healthcare.
The expansion of the coronavirus and the measures to guarantee the isolation of the populations of the northern Italian areas, converted into the radiating outbreaks of the epidemic, have unleashed a partly unreal climate among the inhabitants of the most beautiful country in the world. Until a little less than a week ago, nobody expected that his life would be dominated by anxiety, restlessness and, for many, the fear of being one of the victims of the plague coming from China .
The seven dead so far have provided important clues. Except for a 75-year-old woman, already sick with cancer, the other five are elderly people aged 81 to 88 who suffered serious illnesses, which contagion with the coronavirus transformed into a fatal cocktail.
Virologist Nicola Acone recalled that the virus is lethal only in 2% of those infected, and that seasonal flu kills in Italy between 300 and 400 people per year.
St. Mark's Square in Venice looks practically deserted. Italy suffers from the advance of the coronavirus. / AFP
Italy is the third country most affected by the epidemic, behind China and South Korea . A week ago, the outbreak was restricted to only three people in Rome: a couple of Chinese from Wuhan, the city where the outbreak originated, and a repatriated Italian who cured without problems. All three were admitted to the Spallanzani hospital, the best center for infectious diseases in Italy. They are practically cured .
Rarefied weather
Suddenly, everything has changed, and the coronavirus dominates the social and personal life of each . A family friend arrived in Rome this weekend from Bergamo, the city near Milan where two of the six fatalities died so far. He had to meet a group of Catholics neighbors to the Jesuits, as always.
We saw it with other eyes . Worried, a little cowardly. In the end, we laugh together. But after decades of friendship, the perspective of the relationship changed for a moment thanks to an uncontrollable fear that creates distrust. Overcoming these concerns also creates shame, for being carried away by the general climate.
Closed business, an effect of fear and anxiety that the coronavirus epidemic has generated in Italy. / AFP
So far the initiatives of the government and the governors of Lombardy and Veneto, which are of the hard opposition to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, have been fast, firm and effective . They did not let the situation get out of hand.
Fifty thousand people are in quarantine in eleven municipalities in the province of Lodi, where the Italian coronavirus epidemic originated. The isolation is continually being perfected, so that no one enters or leaves the area where the main bet is played. Against these viruses there is no other remedy than to contain it, preventing it from spreading through direct transmission between people.
The north and a new scenario
The prosperous Italian north has changed its appearance. The epidemic is present in seven of the twenty regions of the country where almost half of the 60 million inhabitants live. Milan, the great capital of northern Italians, who live with the standard of living similar to the Germans, is seen as half empty .
Gae Aulenti square in Milan, almost deserted. The city of northern Italy has been greatly affected by the outbreak of coronavirus. / EFE
The courts have closed the doors for a week. The theaters and cinemas, La Scala in Milan, world lyric temple, football stadiums and sports venues of so many other sports are empty and with the lights off for a week. Most restaurants close early , or do not open their doors directly. The bars and the beautiful confectioneries where the Milanese take their traditional snacks are at half-mast, with few customers and a lot of dominant silence because few want to talk and laugh .
In the southern Lombard area, the largest and richest region in Italy, quarantine and fear of contagion are fully experienced. It is now known that the chain contamination plant was the Codogno hospital, one of the quarantined municipalities. The origin is unknown, since the Patient Zero who introduced the virus could not be discovered. It is estimated that it was someone who wanted to cure in the first aid sector.
It was Patient 1, a 38-year-old boy, who spread a good part of the infections. Now he fights in intensive care of the hospital, between life and death .
The investigations of the contagion chains of the epidemic allowed an important discovery to be made this Sunday: in the neighboring region of Veneto, where the second outbreak of the epidemic spread, Patient Zero was a farmer who ended up in a hospital in the area . When he did the pharyngeal tests and tested positive for coronavirus, he said that he had been in Codogno and other places now converted into the quarantined area that keeps 50,000 people locked up.
Ines Prandini, 85, lives in San Fiorano, one of the quarantined cities due to the coronavirus epidemic. / REUTER
The farmer was the involuntary diffuser in the Veneto. There were not two Patients Zero . The man had unwittingly moved the epidemic to his own land. This is how other infected people appeared in Piedmont and Emilia Romania who also remembered that they had been in Codogno hospital or in the province of Lodi. The panorama has become clear .
The momentum of contagion has left everyone amazed. But if the numerous grow so fast (the 229 infected have sprouted out of nowhere in four or five days), it is because the controls of dozens of groups that roam the homes of those who ask to know whether or not they have the coronavirus, and The action of health personnel in all health centers has worked rarely.
The Italian National Health System is doing a great job , and even the World Health Organization has sent its recognition.
Coronavirus expansion is a danger that creates complicated situations. The Mauritius Islands, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, was the scene of one of them. A plane with 300 Italian tourists stumbled upon the alarm of the locals , who first gave them an ultimatum: either they accept two weeks of quarantine or return to their country on the same plane. The negotiations lasted for hours. In the end, the ban was maintained for the Lombards and Veneto, about forty tourists, who had to return to Rome on the same Alitalia plane they had arrived .
The case left a bitter taste. Like the decision of the Basilicata region in southern Italy, which announced its decision not to allow the Lombards, Veneto and Piedmontese who were visiting to enter but agreed to be quarantined. The same happened with the southern region of Molise. For some, it is the inevitable revenge of the underworld of the underdeveloped Italian noon against the arrogant and rich inhabitants of the north.
Three boys with chinstrap in the city of San Fiorano, one of the quarantined cities due to the coronavirus epidemic. / REUTER
On the island of Ischia they wanted to do the same, but the prefect of Naples prevented injustice.
The same happened with some border attempts. Austria and France assured that they will not put barriers to the movement of the Italians after it seemed that the Schengen treaty that established the free movement of citizens of the 27 European countries seemed to be falling apart.
After quick and nervous telephone contacts (and meetings at the level of the European bureaucracy in Brussels), Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that "Schengen does not touch". The statement is clear, but provisional. If the situation worsens, border barriers and restrictive controls at European level will reappear , in the shadow of the coronavirus.
Rome, correspondent