Serbian woman amid coronavirus hell in Italy, where 4 have died: Stores are empty, masks sold out

Foto: Privatna arhiva

The situation in Italy due to coronavirus is dramatically complicating. The virus appeared in the country in mid last week, and has already claimed four lives, with more than 150 people infected. One of the main unknowns is who patient zero was, the carrier of the virus. As authorities look for a way to tackle this dangerous virus, citizens are quietly panicking - the streets are deserted and stores are starting to empty more and more quickly.

Bojana Cavka from Novi Kozarci in Serbia, who lives and works in Italy, stayed home today. She and her partner live in Segrate, not far from Milan, where schools, kindergartens, cinemas are closed... They are still managing to get all the supplies, but they tell us that the shelves in Milan are empty.

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"Yesterday after running in the park, we stopped by a nearby store to buy a couple of groceries and we were quite stunned by the number of people in line at the cash registers. Many are stockpiling, but the shelves were still not empty," Bojana says for our portal.

Photo: Private archive

In Milan, which is only a few kilometers away from where she lives, the situation is completely different. The stores there have been emptied.

"Honestly that seems to me like an overreaction for now, but I don't want to condemn anyone, because if it turns out there is a large number of infected people, it's possible that the measures currently applied in the sites of the virus outbreak (the city of Lodi) will come into force. Everything is closed there and people are not leaving the house," Bojana explains.

Many work from home

Our interlocutor is working from home today while her boyfriend had to go to work.

"Unfortunately, he can't work from home because he manages the production of chemical products. His workers are not using public transport, so he hopes the chance of infection is lower. By the way, many service companies in Milan yesterday informed employees to stay home and do 'smart working'. The same is true with the international law firm I work for. Colleagues working at the front desk who can't work from home have informed me that the streets in the center are quite deserted."

Photo: Private archive

She added that there have been no masks in pharmacies for days and points out a bizarre piece of advice from authorities who said to use masks only in special situations.

"Official channels here advise the use of masks only if we suspect having come in contact with the infected or if we care a person found to be infected, although in practice the situation is different. The problem is that it has been impossible to find masks in pharmacies for a long time. Many have put up notices that masks have been sold out," she said.

Bojana says she's mot indifferent about everything that's going on and that she worries what the days ahead will look like.

"The whole situation is new to us, everything happened very quickly during last Friday. I really cannot predict the course of events in the coming days. There is great concern," Bojana is honest.

She also says she is worried about people in Serbia.

"I spoke with a relative from Belgrade yesterday who told me that her friends from China were coming today, so I was worried. I don't now know what kind of checks you have at airports, but it would be good to draw attention to precautions," says Bojana.

Photo: Private archive

She believes that this situation in Italy came due to the failure to implement two-week quarantine.

"All this is happening because the authorities did not make a decision in time to quarantine all those who come from China for at least two weeks," Bojana said.

The northern part of Italy is blocked due to coronavirus with 11 cities in isolation. There are about 50,000 people quarantined in their homes. Some cities have closed schools, while the Venice carnival has been canceled.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he was surprised by the outbreak of the infection.

(I. Nikolic)