Now, just four months later, life in Italy, country president Mike Pence once said “no one wanted to look like”, is almost back to normal, despite sporadic spikes in cases attributed to migrants arriving in the country as living in narrow quarters.
The death toll has leveled at just 35,000, with the number of newly reported deaths now less than a dozen most days. The total number of cases now stands at 250,103 with daily steps in the low hundreds at most.
Nightclubs and schools are not yet open, face masks are required and social distance is maintained, but summer is in full swing in this country. People go out to eat at restaurants, enjoy the summer tradition of an aperitivo on an open square, on vacation and generally ahead. It is nothing short of a miracle, especially compared to nations like Brazil and the United States, where the pandemic is still very much out of control.
Before that horrific day in March when nearly 1,000 people died, there were stories about how Italians skipped the lockdown. Stories of clandestine dinner parties and whole apartment blocks running the same dog to just ride outside turned out to expose the Italian national era to the bending of the rules. The lockdown at the time meant that everyone, but the most essential of workers, was confined within just 300 meters of their homes.
People lost jobs, businesses suffered and children lost valuable time because the poorly funded education system struggled to adapt to online learning. But as hard as it was, the images of the dead, of the too many hospitals, of the people – cherished grandparents – dying only caused an unimaginable national sadness and scared the whole country, says Gianni Rezza, director of the National Institute of Health.
“The population reacted quite positively in the first phase, however, fear probably played a role,” he told CNN. “Images of the boxes carrying military trucks in Bergamo were huge, and apparently they made it clear how leaving the uncontrolled circulation of the virus would lead to serious problems.”
‘Out of the storm’
Gradually, things only got better from that horrible day, with daily cases, eventually reaching a plateau and falling on a negative number of daily infections. People took the renovation seriously, wore manly masks, as they do today, and the land was gradually healed.
Police strictly restricted the detention and civil protection cars patrolled the streets and told people to stay inside loudspeakers. Then in early May, the country began to gradually open up, first for food before takeout, then table service. With each new taste of freedom, the health authorities checked the infection rates, never allowing more establishments to open when there was a spike, warning that they would lock back when things went awry.
Gyms opened cautiously and stores may still not be full. Trains can only run at 50% capacity and public transport is limited. Mask compliance is strong because it is the law, and hand disinfectant is a feature at almost every business entrance.
The worst, at least for now, was finally over. Now spikes in cases can generally be attributed to clusters in migrant camps or in closed communities that are kept under control through aggressive testing.
On July 23, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza confirmed that the hard work paid off. “I believe Italy made it out of the storm,” he told Italy’s agricultural group Coldiretti. “I do not think of the government, but of the country as a whole.”
However, Speranza warned that it was not yet time to let the guard down completely. “We were the first to be hit in the world after China, we had no instruction manual. We had to learn about the virus,” he said. “I think we have to be honest with each other: these have been the most difficult months in the country’s history since World War II.”
But while Italy was driving – at a safe distance – he was quick to warn that the worst might not be over for everyone yet. “The international situation worries me a lot,” he said, noting that we were at “the worst moment of the epidemic on a global scale.”
So what makes a country like Italy, long known for its skepticism for anything that even seems like a rule, win this battle that no one else can seem to get? Second waves have hit Spain, France and Germany and the first wave is almost not in the US but the United Kingdom.
Journalist and author Beppe Severgnini told CNN that it was the very Italianness of the Italian people who made it. “We copied because we found other sources that always were: Realism, ingenuity, extended families, solidarity and memories,” he told CNN. “In Italy, rules are not followed, or not followed, as they are elsewhere. We think it is an insult to our intelligence to comply with a regulation without first doubting it.”
So when the government imposed a draconian lockdown on March 10, Severgnini says Italians believed in rule. “With Covid-19, we decided that the lockdown made sense, that there was no need to maintain it,” he said.
Political will
Many blame the non-elected Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who has no political attack or party behind him, for not playing politics. Every time he introduced a stronger measure, he said the blame was “on me” and not on the government he led.
Still, campaigners in the north of the country, where the virus ran unchecked from the first reported case on February 21 until when the country was shut down on March 10, insist he did not take it seriously enough at first. He was questioned by prosecutors in June to determine whether the draconian lockdown should begin sooner.
Rezza believes that not only should fear play a role, but also the government should be congratulated, citing Conte’s adherence to science about popularity. “There was for once, I would say, a certain clarity and a certain courage of the politicians, because they listened to the scientists, in particular the Minister of Health,” he said, referring to Speranza.
“Politicians also made courageous decisions, because the lockdown meant that part of the population could be unhappy and have economic consequences. The decision to write at a national level was certainly courageous.”
In the US, lockdowns have been wrong, and in the UK, the resurgence has been complex and hard for the population to comprehend. There are loopholes and exceptions to almost every rule. Even in Spain, where the virus hit hard and the lockdown was stiff, the virus has managed to find a new foothold, in part because authorities opened it too fully, too quickly. You can dance in Spain, but not yet in Italy.
France, too, has seen a resurgence of the virus, but authorities only imposed a mandatory face mask indoor rule on July 20. Italy have continued the demand since the beginning and Speranza says they will likely stay for a while.
Despite the success story in defeating the virus, Italy has suffered huge economic losses. GDP is expected to contract by around 10% this year and many companies linked to the tourism sector may never reopen. But the lack of a second wave – so far – means there will likely be no other lockdown and companies can continue to build without being afraid of losing even more money.
Severgnini, who has lived in the US, draws the contrast between Italy’s surprising success to date with America’s obvious struggle to flatten the national curve. “The United States was born out of an uprising, and you can still feel it,” he said. “But to sometimes rebel is absurd – for example during a pandemic.”
He also believes that fear played a role. “Fear can be a form of wisdom,” he said. “Obesity, a show of carelessness,” he said. “Ah, and we don’t have Donald Trump, that helps.”
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