The coronavirus situation seems to grow more serious with each passing day. The World Health Organization has finally declared the virus a pandemic. Meanwhile, Italy, the European country that the virus hit the hardest, had to take drastic measures to protect its citizens and to try and slow the spread of the illness.
However, how are Italians dealing with the coronavirus lockdown and what is the current situation like? That’s what one internet user wanted to know as they turned to the Ask Reddit community for answers. Italians explained just how much Covid-19 had turned their lives upside down: from school and work to everyday life.
We’ve collected the most moving responses from the Reddit thread, so read on to learn what living in Italy is really like from the people who are experiencing it firsthand. We don’t want to raise any unnecessary panic (we see enough of that worldwide already), but this may be what some of us might have to look forward to if our own countries are locked down in the future.
Bored Panda reached out to Doctors in Italy, a platform that helps people find English-speaking doctors in the country, about how the coronavirus has affected Italy, about the precautions that doctors there are taking, as well as what people can do to stay safe and healthy. "If you happen to have to go out for your work or for buying food, you see an eerie version of your city. Rome is ever more beautiful with the sun shining and the empty streets. The shops are all closed, and no one is around."
"You need to carry a certificate explaining why you need to be out (for work or health reasons). If you have no good reason or cannot demonstrate a real need, you can get a fine. Since very few people are around, it is very likely to be stopped by the police, so it's not a risk to take lightly. Everyone is doing their best to follow the decree. Being caught red-handed —wandering around without a good reason—can even result in jail time," a representative of Doctors in Italy told us. Scroll down for the rest of the interview.
#21
I'm from Milan. I'm stuck at home with two brothers and my dad who is working from home for like two weeks.
Most of the time I have to attend online lessons from my uni.
Yesterday a police car drove through the neighborhood with a megaphone warning citizens to stay home unless for emergency situation.
It felt like we were in some sort of stereotypical post- apocalyptic movie.
Report
17points
#22
The most frightening thing is going to be the economy. Not only stock prices, but all the small businesses that survived and that support small communities: my parents own a big electrotechnical company, but their biggest clients are the government, airports and big corporations, that now don’t allow anyone inside. It’s looking pretty bad and the worst is yet to come according to academic studies
Report
16points
#23
I am self employed.
I am working as normal, but I advised my clients not to come by unless it's truly urgent. I'm asking my secretary to take a paid leave until the end of the month because I don't really need her around since many colleagues are not working much right now.
All bars are closed. restaurants too I guess but I wouldn't know because I have a newborn and my life has been just work-home for the past two months anyways.
We avoid shaking hand and coming too close to other people. Wash our hands religiously and change clothes as soon as I get home. I avoid taking the elevator as much as possible.
All in all, life is going on mostly as it was before but there's very few people around.
I am mostly worried about my father since he's close to 80 and he insists on working. I hope this goes away soon.
Report
13points
#24
Currently watching a university lesson from my bed but my father went to work this morning, I'm in a region where the lockdown started officially today so it's all pretty new, let's hope people don't storm the grocery stores
Report
12points
#25
Had to go to work this morning in a desert city, felt post apocalyptic in every means (empty stations, recorded warnings about the situation, etc) and despite wanting to rush thing at work to go back home I can't really get the right amount of concentration.
Report
12points
#26
Live in Italy. It's the same as usual. The real kick in the teeth is not producing anything economically for the next month and watching people starve since they can't open their business. The virus is bad, but I think the long term economic side effects will be far worse. But it is what it is.
Report
12points
#27
I’m returning back to my place after I kept my girlfriend company. Thing is, her parents work and I’m scared that somehow I got it and it’s just waiting to show symptoms. The paranoia will only increase in the next few weeks. I hope when things are over we’ll invest more in public health and be more conscious about safety standards.
Report
12points
#28
It's pretty bad actually. I'm sophomore and I feel like it will be really hard to catch up, because we will have barely a month of actual school left. Moreover, the lockdown is causing severe economical issues, expecially to those who own small businesses such as restaurants, clothing stores ect. A lot of these activities will go bankrupt, because they have close to no customers. However, I think the only thing we can do is contain the infection, so the lockdown is necessary.
Report
11points
#29
I'm a university student, and since last week we have been doing lessons via Microsoft Teams or Google Classrooms. I don't really like these methods, but it's the only alternative, so... There's a fair amount of psychosis between a big chunk of the population; supermarkets have been raided overnight. We are advised to not leave our houses unless it's necessary, but you can fill a form on your own to certify that you need to go to work, so basically everyone is running around without a real examination of that form because literally anyone can do that. The only thing that has been really impacted by this is nightlife and sports since every league of every sport is suspended until April
Report
10points
#30
People are God damn stupid here, one of my friend asked me to hang out because he was bored of staying home. Half of the people does not even care about the virus and the restrictions, the other half is totally confused because the govern is handling things in a bad way. Disinfectant is out of stock because people can't even read that it doesn't work against the virus, also any chinese is looked in a weird "oh i want you to know i'm not racist" way.
Report
10points