As you all know, we have a blogger in Salerno, Antonia, who gives us great pieces on her ex-pat adventures in Italy. See a quick update on the current situation there. We have also heard from our friend in Rome below.
“Cases are constantly growing as it is expected for the next 10-14 days. The good news of yesterday is that in Bergamo ( currently the epicenter of the infection) the number of recovered people was higher than the ones arrived at the hospital. Unfortunately the age of the infected people is lower now as , unlike the elderly, the young (40 and more) resist at home until they cannot breath and so they are in very bad conditions and very hard to care. There are a lot, however, that have high fever for 4-5 days and that recover naturally but what is important to know is that this virus is so aggressive that potentially more people are infected than officially known (no symptoms, not yet tested) and extremely contagious. Therefore, the only prevention is to stay at home. As of today, this is the situation. We strongly hope that the virus spread doesn’t arrive in the center southern Italy the way it arrived in the north as hospitals and healthcare services there are less organized and equipped. We can only pray and be very careful not only for ourselves but above all to respect the others.”
To all my dear friends and family who are all concerned about me here in beautiful downtown Salerno. I’m fine, no symptoms, streets are empty, markets still have food. Pollution is down from no cars or motorcycles on the streets. Yay! I’m cleaning, binge watching Madmen -again-and clearing off my desk of all those post-its of things to do. It’s eerie for sure, to not feel the energy of Italy on the streets or smell the perfume of the restaurants, caffe bars and bakeries. But I pray that with our efforts the virus will be contained and we will all live happily ever after. Love to all my peeps out there. Thank you for your concern. Antonia.
