As the UK and many other countries tangle with the complexities of post-lockdown life with coronavirus this week, it has been cheering to see pictures from Spain and Italy where people – including millions of cooped-up children – have been allowed back outside. In Italy, where some towns and cities have been on lockdown since late February, the impact of the pandemic has clearly been seismic. For the past 12 weeks our Italian correspondents Angela Giuffrida and Lorenzo Tondo have been covering developments in the country. Now, as Italy begins to slowly emerge from lockdown, they speak to six Italians about how their lives have changed since Covid-19 hit.
Every week we learn more about the virus (see page 22 for some of this week’s key lessons). But what have we learned about how to stop future outbreaks – of a coronavirus or otherwise? This week, to open our series of Covid-19 reports, our international correspondent Michael Safi speaks to health and policy experts to establish 10 tenets of stopping the spread of a virus such as this one. They include: the importance of tackling inequality; the power of acting quickly; and – perhaps, vitally – not electing leaders who don’t believe in science …
We have plenty more great writing on the pandemic, including John Harris on the no-longer-so-radical idea of a universal basic income. Meanwhile, Marina Hyde dissects Boris Johnson’s bluster about the UK response. Elsewhere, we look at the joy of wildlife in our cities and Samanth Subramanian tells the story of the pandemic through its most visible symbol: the face mask, an object now being shipped with armed guards and sold by everyone from PPE wholesalers to local drug dealers.
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