Some older Italians said the streets had a wartime feel. Every day at 6 p.m., health and civil protection officials step out in front of national cameras and update the country on the number of infections (10,149 as of Tuesday night) and deaths (631, up 168 from the day before), a ritual that has added to the sense of calamity.
A doctor in a hospital in the Lombardy city of Bergamo posted on social media a graphic account of the stress on the health system by the overwhelming number of patients. It was republished Tuesday in Italy’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera.
“The war has literally exploded and battles are uninterrupted day and night,” the doctor, Daniele Macchini wrote, calling the situation an “epidemiological disaster” that has “overwhelmed” the doctors.
“One after the other, these unfortunate people come to the emergency room,” he wrote. “They have far from the complications of a flu. Let’s stop saying it’s a bad flu.”
Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister, said in an interview that the virus had 10 days of a head start on the government, and that sweeping measures like the government’s decree were necessary to save all of Europe.
“Today the red zone is Italy,” he said. But in 10 days, he said, it will be Madrid, Paris and Berlin.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-movement-restrictions.html
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