Hi everybody,
I was asked, since I had been the first in the community to talk about what was happening about covid-19, how are things going here in Italy and especially if they are improving.
I make a brief premise before updating you, trying to stay within the rules of the community, although I would like to be very caustic with my comments.
The pandemic has hit hard, more or less in the same way, on all continents, regardless of the different health systems, governments of different political colours, the wealth of the affected country, and so on.
I have to say, however, that those who, at international level, had to give health guidelines to follow, were at the very least wavering in their declarations, leaving governments and populations in uncertainty.
Besides, we were all overwhelmed because we were unprepared to deal with this pandemic.
I hope that what has happened will at least help to ensure that this does not happen again in the same way in the future.
I am the first to say that our life is the most important thing we have, but soon afterwards comes the freedom to live and this has been taken away from us, more or less strongly, in my opinion in an exaggerated way.
In Veneto, the region where I live and whose capital is Venice, which was the one where the first death from Covid-19 occurred in Italy, things, all in all, went much better than in other regions.
To date, with a population of just under 5 million inhabitants, we have had a total of 19,200 positive people, 16,300 of whom have already recovered, 922 still positive and just under 2,000 deaths.
In the last two weeks there have been very few new cases, they are counting on the fingers of one hand, and intensive therapies no longer have Covid positive patients admitted.
We were certainly lucky, but this may have depended on many reasons: the behavior of the people, the scientists of our region who sensed what many had not understood, that asymptomatic people were contagious, and therefore tried to isolate them immediately, but also the fact that we do not have large cities with many public transport as a further source of possible spread of contagion.
In order to achieve this, however, in addition to the total closure imposed by the government, which allowed travel only to go to work or shop, they imposed further restrictions on us.
Movements could only be made within the same municipality and, to make a minimum of physical activity, the limit was within 200 meters from home.
Also, there was strict control by law enforcement, even with the use of drones.
Hundreds of thousands of people were controlled in Italy and thousands were sanctioned with fines starting from 400 €.
Fortunately, for about a month now, almost all economic activities, a little at a time, are starting again, albeit with many limitations due to the need to ensure safe distances between people.
Exceptions are schools and universities, which closed last week after three months of lessons from home, and which will reopen with the new school season probably in the second half of September, but we still do not know how.
The last to reopen will be the activities that create more crowds so cinemas, theaters, concerts.
This weekend will also restart the national football championship (in USA called soccer), although behind closed doors, while other sports such as basketball, volleyball and rugby have closed without restarting.
Unlike in the USA, it was the governors of the regions who pushed for the reopening, while the government did not want to know or at least was much more reluctant.
At the economic level, at the moment, estimates predict a drop in GDP of near 10% compared to 2019, but we still do not know what the impact will be on workers because the possibility of dismissal has been temporarily blocked by law.
To try to minimize the impact as much as possible, two deficit budget maneuvers have already been made, waiting for something decent to be decided in Europe (but here opens another chapter that I prefer not to deal with, otherwise I could be really bad).
I must say that many people have adapted well to work from home but, even in this case, the answer is subjective and depends on the possibilities that everyone had to organize themselves (space in the house, internet connectivity, presence or not of small children).
I conclude, linking to what @Jaime_Lee wrote in another post, that I have particularly suffered from the impossibility of attending masses and, even now that they have started again two weeks ago, it really horrifies me to see the priest wearing a mask and gloves and the fact that access is regulated and restricted, especially if I compare it with other gatherings that have been seen on the two national holidays of April 25 and June 2.
Not to mention masses, during the lock down, interrupted by the police because too many unauthorized people (even 5 or 6) inside the churches or priests sanctioned while they went in procession with the statues of the patron saints, praying for the end of the pandemic.
I'm really closing now, but if you want I'm available to give you some more information on request.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones.
Marco
