Enduring the quarantine in Milan
Up to a month ago, Milan was the coolest, most affluent and brilliant city in the whole of Italy. The city where people want to go ( study-work-shop-live ), the capital of fashion and design, of smart living…
Today it’s the world capital of Corona Virus, the region where 30,000 cases are recorded and where 3,000 casualties are counted as of today. And it is implied by scientists that we should consider the real number of cases as tenfold.
The Italian National Health Service is one of the best in Europe, as far as medicine, healthcare and welfare are concerned ; Milan is the excellence of it all. Still, with such a rapid upsurge of cases to be treated, the system is barely holding up. Doctors, nurses, hospitals are doing miracles, new emergency hospitals are being built up at Chinese rythms, but it is really hard to cope. The top priority is to reduce the dayly increase in the number of cases, i.e. hospital beds, in order to give a break to the whole healthcare structure.
The best we, citizen of Milan, can – and must- do, at individual level, is to stay locked down at home and to strictly respect the tight safety measures which have been adopted, and tightened every few days. I must acknowledge and underline that the milanese population is being very good about it ; there is hardly any trafic ( the improvement in air pollution quality is amazing), hardly anybody walking down the streets.
A ghost town. You can’t go out unless to walk your dog, buy groceries or go to the chemist shop: and all this must take place in an area maximum 200 meters from your own home. All shops, restaurants and coffee shops are closed. No walks in city parks, no jogging, no strolling... while spring is blooming.
We live in a flat in the very core of Milan centre. We don’t go to see our children and grand-children, who are all locked down in their respective homes: they are working on line, getting school lessons by Skype, doodling around ... And since we all live in flats in the urban area, we have no private gardens for the children to play. I am lucky to have a big terrace on the 7th floor, with a view of the city roofs, of church spires and of the back of the Milan Duomo.
But we are all well so far, and this is what counts.
Marina - Milan, 25th March 2020
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