An American ex-pat living in coronavirus-hit Italy has described the “wartime” conditions during lockdown including empty streets, loudspeakers announcing curfew and police checks.
Jonell Galloway said Lucca in Tuscany, where she currently lives, is “like a ghost town” with almost all business closed while the deadly disease is brought under control.
The 63-year-old said “life is no longer normal” and people “don’t know what tomorrow might bring” – with even the mayor having tested positive for Covid-19.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the whole country would come under heavy restrictions this week until at least April 3 in an unprecedented step with Italy recording the highest amount of cases and deaths outside of China where the virus started.
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Yesterday the death toll there rose by 196 to 827 with more than 12,000 confirmed cases overall.
Ms Galloway, originally from Hardinsburg, Kentucky, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “Wartime must feel like this, when the streets are empty and you don’t know what tomorrow might bring.
“Cafés and restaurants, where the young had continued to congregate, are required to close at 6pm and sure enough, before 6 tonight, the curfew began and there were loudspeakers in the streets telling us to go home.”
With only food shops and pharmacies now allowed to remain open all day, people are told to stay home except for work or other necessities.
People must fill out forms explaining why they are leaving home and if it is proved they have lied they could face arrest.
Ms Galloway, an author and publisher, said on Wednesday that rebels are already breaking the new rules that everyone should remain one-metre away at all time.
“This afternoon, like many others, except the elderly, we decided to break the ban on staying in except in case of necessity and did our daily promenade on the wall,” she wrote on Facebook .
“Taking advantage of the spring sunshine felt like a necessity,” she added.
However, she went on to say: “There were policemen stopping people randomly, but we didn’t get checked.”
Ms Galloway knows of a local woman who was released from hospital but fell ill again with the virus – but she is convinced the Government is doing the right thing and has praised the resilience of the Italian people.
“This bug is vicious and tenacious and the Italian government is right to lock down the whole country,” she continued.
“It feels a little like we’re in a prison that we all agree to be in, but it’s far from martial law.”
Ironically, she said she lives across the street “from a real prison, perhaps the only one in Italy that hasn’t rioted over deprivation of visiting rights”.
Ms Galloway said it is “not through lack of reactivity” that the disease has spread so quickly in Italy.
“The government and health care system have been unfailing in their organisation and efforts.
“We are kept up-to-date on a practically minute by minute basis on numerous government-sponsored sites.”
She said everyone across the world must “apply our knowledge wisely as the Italians are doing”.
But, she added: “The question is how long can we live like this in a country so used to freedom of movement by ground, air or sea?
“The very idea of not being able to go wherever you want when you want might prove to be trying.”
