As many already know, yesterday morning (Sunday, March 8) we woke up to hear of more restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
First, the
entire region of Lombardy and 14 other surrounding provinces, including
Venice and parts of the Emilia Romagna region, have travel restrictions and it is forbidden to leave those areas unless absolutely necessary.
Trains and planes are still operational - but in that area, people should not leave and this is a measure to stop the spread of the virus.
As far as we know, there are no roadblocks so people can actually leave the area, it is up to people to use common sense....
... but it seems we don't have any. Most Italians are behaving like little children who run and do what they have just been told to NOT do.
This was seen by the mass of people who rushed to the train stations in Milan to LEAVE the area as soon as they heard there was a restriction.
Now, if someone had to return home because they don't live in Milan, that's one thing. But many live and work in Milan and when they heard the news were taken over by panic and wanted to return home to their parents or other loved ones.
Many were headed southward to Florence, Rome, Naples and further down to areas which for now have few cases.
The government is telling them to self-impose a quarantine at their destination and stay home for the next 2 weeks, let's hope they do so.
Want to see a map of current cases of coronavirus in Italy? Head to the site of the Protezione Civile which is in charge of this crisis - there is up to date information on the cases there (updated once daily around 5pm local time) -
http://opendatadpc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/b0c68bce2cce478eaac82fe38d4138b1
Because people are behaving with disregard to the limits on social gatherings - where the goal is to avoid being in large crowds since you don't know who has been exposed in one way or another - the government has taken the next step:
----> ALL public gatherings have been banned until April 3 <-----
This means
NO weddings, funerals, concerts, sporting events, discos, bingo halls, video arcades.
All congresses, meetings, reunions, social events - including private parties - are cancelled/not allowed.
Competitive sports events - such as soccer matches - are still allowed but with closed doors, that means no public allowed in to watch the games.
This also means that they had to make sure people do not take risks and so
all MUSEUMS are now closed.
To be honest, people were already staying away from museums and they were not crowded, but now it is an extra measure.
Restaurants and coffee bars, shops and churches are STILL OPEN - as long as they can implement measures to ensure people are not crowded inside and have the relative distance of at least a meter between each other.
Grocery stores and markets remain open, all services and merchandise is moving so that places remain stocked.
There are no empty shelves, but as you can imagine, hand sanitizers and disinfectants are gone.
As you can imagine, this is definitely hitting us hard. We have kids at home since all schools are closed (officially until March 15 but we think this will be extended), and we are avoiding public spaces. The cases in Tuscany have increased to 165, many have originated from people who had been in the north... so see, the measures would have been useful if they were followed from the start.
So while we are not a hot spot for the disease, I don't feel like reassuring people anymore to continue with travel plans to come to Italy at the moment.
I am writing a new blog post to continue to answer your questions and ones I am getting by email with updated answers. I'll come back and share the link here once it is online.