Dealing with COVID-19 in Italy

Italy has been in the news these past few weeks because of it becoming a so-called hot spot for the dreaded COVID-19 virus.

Virus activity seems to be slowing down there now after 128,948 cases and 15,887 deaths from the virus being recorded in that country of 60 million people since the start of the worldwide pandemic.

Compare those figures to the USA where 337,737 cases and a little over 10,000 virus deaths have been recorded as of last Monday in a country of 331 million.

Elena Tirchi, 39, the sister of Diana Jorgensen of Custer, wrote to us from her small village about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Milan, close to Como Lake and the mountains in northern Italy.

Diana and Elena are both from Moldova, a small land-locked country with 3.5 million people in Eastern Europe surrounded by Ukraine on the north, east and south, and Romania on the west.

Elena left Moldova 15 years ago for Italy and a year ago also became a citizen of her new homeland.

Elena has a small nursery in her home in which she takes care of five children ages 6 months to 3 years old. That is, she did until Feb. 24 when she closed because of COVID-19.

“In February, Italy was affected by the first few COVID-19 cases in an area about 100 kilometers from here,” she wrote in an email last week.

She said at first everyone continued working, traveling, skiing during the weekends and going to the pubs and restaurants.

Then there were more and more cases reported in a larger area. The first measures authorities took were to stop all school activities and close theaters and cinemas.

“We were thinking these closures were probably too much. We were thinking this virus was not much more than a normal feverish flu which would be solved in a short period of time,” Elena said.

“I remember at the beginning of March we went skiing with some friends and we organized a dinner at our home with 12 friends. My business was closed, but our life continued as usual,” she said. 

“The day after this a lot of COVID-19 cases were reported all over our region (Lombardia) and our life changed. We started to be afraid because everyone knew people who were affected from this virus and more and more people started to die,” Elena said.

The 89-year-old uncle of her husband was infected and after a week in the hospital, he died. His 87-year-old wife and his son also got the virus, but survived.

“In Bergamo, a very nice city about 50 kilometers away from us with 100,000 inhabitants, more than 1,000 people died because of the virus. But the real numbers are surely higher. The total number of dead people compared to the same period last year is about four times higher,” she said.

The Italian health system is public and funded with high taxes. There is no private medical insurance because everything is covered by the state, she said.

“The numbers of people affected by the virus is huge and the health system has many difficulties, but it works. Everyone until now has a good level of assistance. Milan prepared a hospital in just 10 days in the exposition area,” Elena said.

“Doctors were putting forth long hours working day and night with many of them getting the virus and some of them dying. Everyone recognizes our doctors as real heroes,” she said.

“Everything about our lives has changed. We are going out just once a week to get food. Nothing is missing and there is no problem at all. We now have time for many activities,” Elena said.

“I like to cook and during these days I have prepared homemade pizza and bread. I have read some books and have a garden. I go out every day for physical exercise. Hopefully, this virus didn’t stop the spring, which is coming,” she said.

Her husband is employed as a sales manager in a company that produces plastic materials, 80 percent of which are exported. The company is still open, but the production level has greatly decreased. The goal is not to lose customers and to be able to restart when this is all over.

“There is just a little activity in a strong industrial area which is still operating. There are just a few cars on the roads, so we can better hear the sounds of nature, but often we hear the sound of ambulances,” Elena said.

“This has been a bad experience, but I hope we can all learn something from it. When it will all be over we will start to appreciate the things we took for granted,” she said.

Many children in Italy have designs on flags flying from windows with rainbows and words saying “ANDRA’ TUTTO BENE” — everything will be fine. Elena said this gives hope to everyone and has become a symbol of that hope.

“Many countries, including the US, have helped Italy and we are all glad because of it and I hope when this is over that many tourists will continue to visit Italy,” she said.

When the pandemic passes, Elena said her first long trip will be to Custer to visit her sister, who is office manager at Jorgensen Log Homes. Diana is married to Tyson Jorgensen. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Milana.

The two sisters have a brother, Sergia, who still lives in Moldova.